Aahana Swrup
Prime Video’s Spanish drama film ‘Tell Me Softly’ (Originally titled ‘Dímelo Bajito’) presents a tense love triangle between a pair of brothers and their former childhood friend. After an uneventful summer, Kamila returns for a new year at Carsville International School, where a giant surprise awaits him. As it turns out, the Di Bianco brothers, ex-best friends from her childhood days, are back in town. The older sibling, Thiago, who was Kamila’s first kiss, seems to hate her for a reason hidden deep inside the trio’s shared past. On the other hand, the younger brother, Taylor, who has always harbored a soft spot for the protagonist, seems eager to rekindle their friendship. Naturally, complicated dynamics pave the path for high school drama, steeped in romantic entanglements, petty rivalries, and a family secret that blankets and suffocates Kami’s every interaction with the Di Bianco family. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Tell Me Softly Plot Synopsis
When Kami wakes for her first day back in high school, she’s already dreading the day ahead. In the previous summer, she had made some decisions regarding her personal life that promised to add some drama to her life. She has decided to break up with her boyfriend, Dani, finally putting an end to their toxic relationship. As expected, Dani doesn’t take the news too well, and his attempts to make her change her mind steer into aggressive territory. Fortunately, there happens to be a third party inside the boys’ locker room, the venue of this confrontation, who stands up for Kami. It doesn’t take long for Dani to notice the triangle scar on the new boy, Taylor’s wrist, which seems to be a perfect match for the one his ex-girlfriend has. Still, there doesn’t seem to be much that he can do to change the latter’s mind about the end of their relationship.
Later in the day, during the joint football and cheerleading practice, the team is introduced to Thiago, Taylor’s older brother, and the apparent new assistant coach. Soon enough, the rest of the cheer squad, headed by Cata, brings up Kami’s past with the two brothers. Seven years ago, before the Di Biancos moved away, she and the two brothers used to be the best of friends, constantly going off on adventures together. In fact, the matching scar on their wrists was an intentional mark they burned on their skin as a symbol of their eternal bond and friendship. Nonetheless, it seems that the bond has since crumbled. While Thiago harbors a blatant hatred toward her, constantly holding her at blame for some event from their past, Taylor wears his affection for her on his sleeve.
This becomes all the more obvious once the younger brother and Kami get paired up for a sex-ed project together, which gives the latter an excuse to visit the Di Bianco house and catch up with Chiara. Furthermore, during their session, she and Taylor also almost kiss, but are ultimately interrupted by Thiago, who gets easily angered about her presence in his house and around his family. The trio’s dynamic remains as such for some time, with Taylor and Kami growing closer, and Thiago consistently expressing his disapproval while also harboring a sexual tension of his own with his ex-friend. The school’s overnight trip for a basketball game further heightens these relationships, especially after Cata’s ploy to hurt and embarrass Kami. She orchestrates an accident to have the other girl fall during a flip in the cheer routine. Yet, in the aftermath, it only ends up bringing her closer to a concerned Taylor. Although this leads the two to fall into bed together, Kami pulls away on her own when haunted by the thought of Thiago as well as her guilty conscience over something that happened seven years ago.
Tell Me Softly Ending: What Happened Between Thiago and Kami?
The film presents Kami’s story as a dual narrative, with the present timeline interspersed with flashbacks to her childhood. As such, witnessing her early years with the Di Bianco brothers, and especially Thiago, makes the significance of their childhood friendship all the more evident. Consequently, her reality as a teenager, when the same boy seems to vehemently hate her, comes as a jarring surprise. Over time, it becomes obvious that Thiago’s grudge against Kami isn’t simply because of a childhood romance gone wrong or some other trivial feud. Instead, he holds her responsible for one of the most formative and traumatic events from his life.
In their childhood, Kami and the Di Bianco brothers would often embark on playful adventures. However, during one such venture, she and Thiago ended up becoming witnesses to something world-changing. The two came across Thaigo’s father having an affair with Kami’s mother inside a car parked in a remote location. Naturally, this came as a distressing surprise for the kids, especially the older boy. He seems to understand on an instinctual level how the truth about this affair would ruin his family. For the same reason, he made Kami promise not to share the truth about what they saw with anyone. Although she sat on the secret for some time, she realized she couldn’t lie to her own father forever. On the day of a birthday party for Luci, the third and youngest Di Bianco sibling, Kami ended up revealing the secret to her father for fear of eventually losing him.
However, in doing so, she ended up also unraveling Thiago’s father’s secret. As a result, his mother, Chiara, found herself in an extremely hurt and fragile state, wherein she loaded her kids in her car and drove away in the pouring rain. Consequently, in her reckless driving, she ended up swerving the car off a bridge when a deer blocked their path. On the horrid day, Thiago was able to swim out of his seat and save both Chiara and Taylor. Nonetheless, he couldn’t save Luci in time before the car inevitably sank into the riverbed. Ever since that dreadful incident, Thiago has held Kami responsible, blaming her for breaking her promise and blurting out the secret that ruined his family.
Is Kami in Love With Taylor or Thiago? Who Does She End Up With?
While the mystery of Kami’s past with the Di Bianco brothers makes up a significant aspect of their narratives, her relationships with the two undoubtedly inform the foundation of the story. Once the brothers return to their hometown, their lives quickly become entangled with their old friend. Taylor is much more upfront about his desire to rekindle his friendship with Kami, easily making himself a near-permanent fixture beside her. Furthermore, unlike his childhood days, he also doesn’t shy away from the reality of his feelings for her this time around. The flashbacks make it obvious that Kami was always much closer to Thiago, while Taylor was a perpetual third wheel with hidden, unrequited feelings for her. However, all of this changes in high school.
As Taylor becomes bolder in his affection for Kami, she reciprocates his feelings in turn. Regardless of her feelings toward him during their childhood, or lack thereof, she seems eager to explore the new and more sexually and romantically resonant side of their relationship. During the basketball tournament, the two even come close to hooking up after Taylor comforts Kami in the aftermath of her fall. However, the latter pulls away before anything can happen because she realizes that she still harbors strong feelings for Taylor’s older brother. Initially, this may make it seem like her attraction toward the younger brother was only misguided and misplaced love for Thiago. Nonetheless, that isn’t entirely true. Towards the end of the story, the anniversary of Luci’s death arrives, bringing a horde of complicated feelings for the characters.
As a result, Kami finds herself cycling out to the cursed bridge in the middle of the night. Coincidentally, Thiago also ends up at the same place after an emotionally charged conversation with his mother. Chiara urges him to let go of his guilty conscience and even forgive Kami for Lucia’s death. On the bridge, once Kami finds Thiago crying inside his car, she echoes the same sentiment. Eventually, this leads to the duo confessing their past and persistent feelings for each other. Yet, once they begin kissing and things take a heavier turn, the moment has to end once again. This time, it’s because Kami knows that she isn’t being fair to Taylor, whom she has come to genuinely care for in the past few days. She realizes that she’s lost in her own feelings, equally traumatized and broken in the face of their complicated dynamic ever since Luci’s death. However, despite everything, she doesn’t want to cause any more hurt to either brother. Ultimately, this decides the unresolved conclusion of the love triangle, leaving intentional space for future expansion through potential sequels.
Does Thiago Forgive Kami?
The circumstances around Luci’s death are evidently complicated and full of nuance. Even though Thiago blames Kami for the incident, she’s only a small part of the bigger picture. Undoubtedly, his father’s affair is the actual jumping point behind the entire event. From there, Chaira’s reckless driving after receiving this information also led the family to the dreadful moment. Lastly, Thiago is bound to blame even himself for the incident for failing to save his baby sister. Nonetheless, while there are numerous people who can shoulder the worst of his anger over the incident, Kami ends up bearing the brunt of it. This is because, out of everyone involved in the incident, she was the only one the oldest Di Bianco brother trusted and loved the most. Since he never imagined she’d let him down, he feels all the more betrayed by it.
Ultimately, Thiago’s feelings are much too complicated, colored with childhood anger and trauma, to be resolved easily. The fact that his feelings for Kami persist through it all makes everything even more complex. Although he treats the latter callously upon his return to town, he never stops caring about her. For the same reason, her growing relationship with Taylor stings even more. In the end, even once he stops blaming her for Luci’s death and submits to the reality of his feelings for Kami by kissing her, he’s left feeling betrayed once again when she reveals her complicated feelings toward Taylor. Therefore, by the end of the film, Thiago’s resentment toward Kami only grows further.
Read More: Stephen Ending Explained: Why Did Stephen Kill His Parents?
