New Man
Joao joining the KGB
Episode 10 of Gloria Season 1 begins this finale 6 months earlier to the events of our story. Joao shoots a man dead in the middle of the streets as he gets a bit handsy with a young lady. Now, we soon find out that this guy is James Earl Ray, the man responsible for killing Martin Luther King. Joao heads into a club and meets Alexandre, expressing how disillusioned he is with the war effort in Africa. As they talk, Joao reveals that he’s been attending a lot of communist meetings over the weeks. It seems this is the turning point for joining the KGB, with his time in the war being the big trigger.
Is Joao caught?
Back in the present, Goncalo’s news is met with a desire to try and bring Joao in. They’re clever, using Goncalo as a messenger to organize a dinner. Joao gladly accepts, while the pair continue to find themselves worked over by Ambassador Parker. He directs traffic with building the new antenna, and even makes plans to have Anne replaced. The order comes directly from Richard Helms in Washington too, so there’s no way back from this. That evening, Goncalo breaks into Joao’s apartment and begins looking around while Joao entertains the other operators. Unlike Bill, Goncalo is wise and checks the toilet basin. There, he finds the hidden tapes for Wilson and Anne. With his worst fears confirmed, Goncalo rings Henrique and lets him know. Only, when Goncalo shows up at the meeting spot with the tapes in his pockets, the meet is intercepted and he’s caught red-handed with the tapes. It certainly doesn’t look good, and makes him look like the dirty spy in all this. Henrique has completely played him.
What is Ramiro’s secret?
With Sofia missing, Ramiro remains determined to find his wife. Joao hops along for the ride, pointing a gun at Ramiro the whole time as they head up to the cabin by the lake. There, Ramiro reveals all. He was the one who killed Mia, smacking her upside the head with a pan that night. It wasn’t a hammer after all, and it comes off the back of Mia doing her best to protect her lover from Ramiro. Joao has the situation taken care of, killing Ramiro and staging the scene so it looks like Sofia is shot by him before he turned the gun on himself. Now, the attack on RARET is being organized by Joao, but while it was originally supposed to be on the antenna, Alexandre changes his mind and decides he wants the explosive actually inside the building.
What happens between Joao and his father?
News of Ramiro and Sofia’s death reaches Wilson, while Henrique arrives to see his son, asking about the antenna. He hands over the tapes and demands he take a walk. Now it becomes clear that Henrique was the one behind detaining Goncalo to protect his own son. Goncalo, as we soon find out, is beaten down to a pulp and forced to a sign a confession that he was the mole. Joao meanwhile, is forced out the country by his father. He’s going to be shipped out and away from Gloria. The official story is that he’s taking care of family. Unofficially? Well, that’s up to Joao to figure out. As Henrique hands over his tickets, he gets back in his car and drives away.
How does Gloria Season 1 end?
Joao heads into RARET one last time and plants the explosive, just as Alexandre commanded. Given he’s leaving anyway, there’s nothing left for him now. As he drives off, RARET blows up while Henrique heads into the cell to find Goncalo shivering and naked on the floor. The final scenes show Joao heading up to see Mia, who’s actually still alive and telling her they can leave now.
The Episode Review
The finale resolves most of the big plot points here but it does so with an open conclusion too for a possible second season follow-up. The show has done an okay job to keep things interesting, but the soapy melodrama has sometimes felt a little dominating to the main espionage story. The actual drama involving Joao and his torn allegiance to the KGB, and to those at RARET is a nice touch though, especially when he covers for Goncalo early in the season. Only, the irony is that Goncalo is the one who discovers the truth about him. Interestingly, Henrique covers for his son but the ending seems to hint that he and Goncalo may actually end up working together in the future – we shall see. Either way though, Gloria bows out with a decent enough conclusion, although there are big question marks over where this one could go next. So what did you guys think? Did you enjoy Gloria? What did you think of the ending? Let us know in the comments below!
