Awakenings
We begin the season 3 finale of Suburra in the hospital with Angelica praying. Unfortunately her prayers remain unanswered as she receives some devastating news – she’s lost the baby. It’s a tough pill to swallow and one that sees Spadino doing his best to keep a low profile and sneaking in to see his wife. She’s overcome with grief though and heads out to the balcony, looking precariously over the edge. Spadino’s mother finds her son sneaking in and tells him it’s too risky to go and see her right now. Unfortunately she also feeds back the truth about the lost child. She believes this is God’s answer for him trying to kill Manfredi. As he walks away in grief, Nadia remains by Angelica’s side and tries to calm her. Aureliano and Spadino sit outside in the parking lot and discuss their past tragedies. After Lele and Livia’s deaths, both of them have been through the warzone just to get to this point. And now it all comes down to this – the final fight between Manfredi and this loose alliance between Spadino and Aureliano. Manfredi prepares as such, sitting tight in his room and waiting for Spadino to return. At the same time, Cinaglia visits Alice at the sanctuary and tries to talk her out of reporting him. She’s having none of it though and claims this is the only way to save him. Unfortunately he does the unthinkable and pushes his wife off the cliff face, leaving her in a bloody mess on the floor below. Cinaglia writes out a message on her phone and sends it to himself, making it look like a suicide. This is precisely what he meant by getting his revenge last episode it seems. Meanwhile, a shootout ensues on the road as Spadino and Aureliano are attacked in North Rome by armed guards on bikes. Realizing it’s not safe to see Titto, they quickly drive away. Instead, they make it back to the hospital where Spadino arrives on the balcony to see his wife. He manages to sneak her out the back and takes her to her Father’s house – the only safe place right now. Spadino tries to convince her they can have another child but hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. She wants revenge on Manfredi after what he did. On the back of this, Vincenzo agrees to join Spadino in the upcoming fight. While Angelica stays behind, Spadino promises to get revenge for her. While he prepares, Aureliano does the exact same with Nadia, kissing her goodbye as he prepares for battle. Only, he stops by Sibilla’s house first. She gives him some sound advice and likens him to Samurai, ironically. He too learned how to survive. On the back of this, Aureliano promises to relinquish his grip over her if everything that follows goes smoothly. Angelica is not alone though and with Spadino not answering the phone, she’s forced to rely on Aureliano to help her out. It’s tricky, especially given Spadino and Vincente have already arrived at the spot ready to fight. Only… it’s all a big set-up. Vincente and his men turn their guns on Spadino as the double-cross is revealed. They were working with Manfredi all this time, who appears with his men. Just before Spadino is stabbed by his brother, Aureliano arrives and rushes straight through the middle of this crowd. Aureliano saves his friend, picking off a few rogue fighters with a gun and helping Spadino to try and even the odds. As bullets are exchanged the duo hold their own until they run out of bullets – and options. Aureliano sacrifices himself to save Spadino. As he collapses on the ground, several bullets to the chest, Spadino loses control and finds Manfredi, stabbing him through the neck. The damage has been done though and the place is a bloodbath, prompting Flavio to race up with Angelica and Nadia in tow. Meanwhile, Sibilla meets her fate as she sits patiently waiting for the inevitable bullet through her head. On the back of this, the place is burnt to the ground. Cinaglia picks up his kids from the sanctuary and takes off to the coffee shop like everything is fine. There, he finds a whole stack of papers in an envelope. Badali arrives not long after and the pair talk about the damage that’s been done. As they do, they comment how they need someone to take over the criminal underworld. Quite who though, remains to be seen. With Rome in pieces, Aureliano’s death is a tough pill to swallow for everyone. Spadino hands over his ring to Nadia as dawn breaks, while he tells the harsh truth to Angelica. He can’t go home right now. As Spadino drives off, the final fateful scene of the series sees him saying goodbye to Aureliano on a boat, cradling his lifeless body. Stuffing his ring in his pocket, the camera pans up across the blue desert as the series draws to a close.
The Episode Review
While Suburra doesn’t end on a cliffhanger per-se, wrapping up most of its big plot points of the season, it does leave enough unresolved to want another season. Cinaglia and Badali in particular have no comeuppance for their actions here while the ending to the Spadino/Manfredi incident is suitably poetic – with the knife to the throat – but perhaps a little anticlimactic. Aureliano’s sacrifice is the big talking point here though and given this is the final season, his death has been foreshadowed for a while now. They were both warned what would happen if they didn’t play by the rules and sadly that ended up with his death. The final shots of the season are decent too but there’s been a few plot points here that have been underwhelming, to say the least. Sara has been severely under-utilized throughout this third season while the Cardinal kind of just faded into the background, with nothing coming of him aside from that goodbye scene with his son. While this season perhaps hasn’t quite been as gripping as the first two, there’s enough here to enjoy nonetheless, making for a satisfying enough finish to this underrated Italian drama.
