Unspeakable Sins Ending Explained: Who Killed Claudio?

Netflix’s ‘Unspeakable Sins‘ follows Helena Rivas’s attempts to break free of her abusive marriage with Claudio Martinez. This soon transforms into a complicated tapestry of interpersonal conflicts centered around her husband’s actions. Life takes a turn for the protagonist with the arrival of the young and handsome Ivan Diaz. The two soon begin a passionate affair. However, their plan to get rid of Claudio doesn’t end well, leaving behind a trail of blood and questions. As more and more players begin to enter the fray, tensions begin to simmer, with everyone becoming equal parts victim and perpetrator in the larger narrative. As such, the finale, aptly titled ‘New Life,’ seeks to resolve the mystery once and for all, bringing an end to the cycle of hatred. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Unspeakable Sins Recap

The series begins with Helena trying to escape her toxic relationship with a business tycoon named Claudio Martinez, who soon forces her into submission. Eager to break free of her past, she creates a fake dating profile and starts a sexual relationship with a man named Ivan Diaz. Before long, secrets begin to flow in, with Ivan turning out to be a sex worker, and Helena’s marriage coming to light. However, it only deepens the couple’s relationship, and they begin hatching a plan to get Claudio out of the picture. Upon learning that the latter is secretly gay, the couple decides to videotape him while being intimate with Ivan and use that for blackmail. However, things go south when their plan is discovered, and Claudio gets into a scuffle with the young man. At the same time, Helena’s son, Fer, storms the place during a drug bender, but finds that his stepfather has disappeared.

Claudio’s eldest son, Octavio, initiates a high-profile search, led by the Attorney General, Pablo Morales. However, trouble soon catches up when Magic, a gangster who invested in Claudio’s company, begins demanding his money. At the same time, Helena and Ivan become key suspects, with their ulterior motives coming to light. While the duo manages to escape the heat of the investigation, more truths come to light, particularly about Claudio’s secret videotapes featuring rich businessmen and politicians engaging in compromising sexual activity. With Helena being associated with the practice, Ivan begins to question his place in the narrative. His doubt is fueled by Fedra De Baar, one of his former clients and a friend of Claudio’s.

Magic tasks Octavio with finding his father and the tapes, with Helena carrying out a search of her own. Eventually, a fraudulent ransom call leads Octavio to Claudio’s body double, who is mutilated and presented as his dead father. Their problems only increase when a mysterious person begins to leak the videotapes one by one, redirecting all the blame towards Helena. Pablo Morales is one of the people on the tape, and the revelation prompts him to shoot at the protagonist before taking his own life. Elsewhere, Claudio turns out to be alive and is eventually rescued by the police, bringing more chaos to the narrative. Once back in his home, he immediately checks his laptop and finds multiple recordings of sexual activity, all stored safely.

Meanwhile, Magic continues to look for the tapes, going as far as kidnapping Claudio’s daughter, but to no avail. This does, however, attract the antagonist’s attention, who wastes no time in killing the gangster as revenge. A new sex tape shows up, this time that of Helena and Ivan, juxtaposing the reveal of his married life, complete with a small child named Patricio. When Helena tries to break free of this suffocating environment, Claudio begins to exert pressure on her, demanding that she return. Meanwhile, Fer’s true father, the politician Rafael Barrientos, decides to own up to his mistakes, bringing some much-needed closure to the family dynamic. Just when things seem to be working in Claudio’s favour, he is killed in cold blood, flipping the story on its head yet again.

Unspeakable Sins Ending: Who Killed Claudio? Why?

Claudio’s mysterious death is explained in the final episode, with the killer turning out to be none other than Helena. While she does not confess to the act outright, she makes it very clear to Fedra, and in a flashback to the fateful night, we get the full picture of what happened. Contrary to what she tells the police, Helena did enter Claudio’s house that night, with the express intent to end his life. Planning ahead, she concealed all traces of her identity before making use of a distraction to delete all the compromising footage from her husband’s laptop. Upon his return, she ambushed him, putting a swift end to his life and the nefarious activities. The fact that she shows her face to Claudio in his final moments gives a new light to the scene: as a symbol of her freedom from oppression.

Helena’s decision to kill Claudio comes as a reaction to his long history of abuse, both on a physical, sexual, and emotional level. Claudio makes use of the power imbalance to consistently portray others as lesser individuals before using various methods to coerce them into submission. This includes his treatment of Helena, which most damningly includes forcing her to participate in his perverse schemes. His actions are not just limited to her, but also her son, Fer, as marked by the latter’s crippling drug addiction. The protagonist soon concludes that she cannot escape him so long as he lives, which forces her to take drastic steps. Thus, her act can be interpreted as a quest for liberation, one that takes her through the same path of violence which, ironically, Claudio forced her into.

Claudio’s death also comes as a relief to several other innocent people whose lives have been permanently altered due to his actions. This includes people like Fedra, who turn to evil and are consumed by the chaos triggered by the antagonist’s actions. This also closes a chapter in the story of Fedra’s son Ariel, who killed himself in part due to the sex tape that Claudio made of him. During the conversation, Helena comforts the grieving mother by assuring her that the tape has been erased, which brings relief. She further brings up how similar the two characters are, as their actions are defined by their love for their children. In the end, Helena puts a permanent stop to Claudio’s nature of threatening innocent lives for his personal gains.

Does Ivan Help Helena?

Helena is not alone in murdering Claudio, as we learn when Ivan is revealed to be her partner in crime. However, his participation isn’t as straightforward as can be seen in a flashback. Initially, Ivan has no idea what the protagonist has done, but when the news spreads, he naturally begins to wonder about her involvement. His suspicions are confirmed when he finds Helena desperately trying to get rid of the evidence, namely, the knife and her clothes. Instead of admonishing her, however, Ivan shows a more compassionate side, understanding her need to take such measures. With this, he becomes her ally, taking the evidence to a faraway location before lighting it on fire. The scene calls back to the previous episodes’ visuals of him burning the clothes, which led to the belief that he was the murderer. However, with the full picture in sight, his role becomes that of an accomplice.

Ivan has complex reasons for supporting Helena’s actions, which mirror his own tragedy. In previous episodes, Claudio tracks down Ivan’s family and directly threatens his son, Patricio. This mirrors the situation that the protagonist finds herself in, with her son’s life on the line. As such, both the characters share a desire to bring the antagonist’s reign of terror to an end. With Claudio out of the picture, they can rest in peace knowing that their families are protected. Furthermore, his absence means that there is no further hindrance to their relationship, which finally lets the two reunite once again, with the promise of improving on their past selves. Keeping secrets has been a major flaw on both ends of the dynamic, and their mutual complicity in the murder acts as a balancing agent.

Who is Recording Helena and Ivan?

In the aftermath of Claudio’s death, Helena and Ivan start their lives anew, choosing to settle in Los Angeles. While Helena leaves Sal Y Mar with a hefty compensation, Ivan quits his previous occupation as a sex worker and likely takes on acting, which has been his long-standing dream. The couple is also accompanied by Fer, who makes great strides in his rehabilitation process and seemingly accepts Ivan as part of the family. However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, as the couple still has unknown enemies hiding in the shadows. In the final sequence, the two get intimate, but not before confirming the absence of cameras in their living space. Unbeknownst to them, however, there is indeed a hidden camera, which can be seen sending live footage to an unknown observer.

The observer’s identity remains a secret, making several characters possible candidates. However, given Helena’s history as a participant in Claudio’s videotaping scandal, the list of people behind the screen can likely be narrowed down to his former associates, who might still be at unease about the videos. This makes people like Hugo Montero or even Rafael Barrientos a potential fit, as they have reason to believe that their compromising footage is still in the protagonist’s possession. This means that her struggles are far from over, and the after-effects of her former husband’s actions are still catching up with her. As a wild card possibility, it can also be Commander Sofia, who still suspects that Claudio’s case has more secrets at play.

On the other hand, a case can be made for the observer to be someone with a personal agenda against Ivan and Helena. In this case, characters like Livia and Octavio fit the bill. While the latter is more interested in recovering his company to its former glory, potentially making use of Helena’s wealth, the former has a more complicated dynamic with Ivan. Livia has openly stated her love for him, consequently causing strife between her and the protagonist. However, given that these characters have already concluded their conflicts with Helena, their participation seems unlikely. As such, it is more likely that the couple is being taped by a new character altogether. This makes room for a host of new possibilities, bringing more chaos to Helena’s newly peaceful life.

Who Stole Claudio’s Tapes? Why Was He Kidnapped?

One of the major conflicts in the narratives is the question of Claudio’s missing tapes. As they contain footage of rich and influential people engaging in various perverse acts, they become a hot target for many characters at once. While some, like Helena, plan to use it as a tool for blackmailing, others, such as Pablo, want to erase it for their public image. In the end, the tapes are revealed to be in the possession of Fedra De Baar, a friend of both Claudio and Helena. She releases them in secret, with the aim of antagonizing Claudio, tanking his business, and eventually getting him killed in the process. Her reasons for doing so boil down to an act of revenge, as he is the reason her son, Ariel, took his own life. Fedra doesn’t limit her actions to Claudio and goes as far as making a sex tape of Helena and Ivan public, with the intention of bringing her down as well.

Antonio Grajeles, Claudio’s security head and right-hand man, is another key player in Fedra’s revenge campaign. He kidnaps Claudio at the start of the story for two main reasons: revenge for how the antagonist treated him and his father, and, more importantly, as a way of freeing Livia from her father’s clutches. Antonio has secretly been in a relationship with her, but his status as the businessman’s worker means that they can never make things public. While he desperately tries to bring up the new possibilities to his partner, she seems consumed by her father’s disappearance, ultimately ending their relationship upon learning the truth. However, Claudio doesn’t stop there and kidnaps Antonio before torturing him mercilessly. The antagonist then completes his revenge by killing Antonio, before framing him as Magic’s murderer, killing two birds with one stone.

How Did Cristina Die?

The true reason why Claudio wields such significant control over Helena comes to light with the revelation of what happened to Cristina, his former wife and the mother of Octavio and Livia. Initially, we are led to believe that she had an accidental death and drowned in the lake; however, Commander Sofia Curiel suspects foul play, a notion which is strengthened by CCTV footage that Claudio keeps hidden, which features Helena and Cristina fighting. The full footage is shown only towards the end, revealing a young Fer accidentally knocking Cristina over with his bike, which causes her a fatal injury. Following this, Claudio covers up the death, framing it as a drowning accident, before marrying the protagonist. However, he chooses to keep the footage, using it as a blackmail tool against his wife.

Claudio’s reasoning for letting Cristina die is never made explicit, but one can infer that her intention to give their property away might play a part in it. In a conversation with Ivan, Commander Sofia states that the land on which Claudio built his mansion belongs to her grandfather, and Cristina originally intended to return it to the rightful owner. This potentially distanced her from her husband, a fact that only worsened with Helena’s entry onto the scene. As the latter gradually became a part of the family, Cristina turned into an alcoholic, with her warm and inviting personality fading away, eventually forever. Her death points to the larger selfishness of Claudio, who doesn’t give a second thought to using the suffering of others to his own benefit, a trait that eventually leads to his death.