Taking A Break
Episode 8 of Dom Season 1 begins this finale with the kids hurrying out the complex. It’s a hollow victory in truth, especially after what happened to Carlinhos last episode. Pedro decides they should take a break, and heads up with Figueira’s share of the cash to tell him as much. Well, Figueira allows him one month. Just as Pedro is about to leave, officers come rushing to the scene. They’re fronted by Alberto Barradas who happens to be Chief of the Anti-corruption and anti-money laundering office. This immediately sees Barradas confront Figueira and take his stash of money. Pedro is taken away by these cops too but en-route to the station, is offered a deal. He knows who Pedro’s father is and there’s certainly no love lost between them. The boy is immediately bagged and made a hostage. Marisa receives a call from the kidnappers, demanding 200,000 euros in exchange for Pedro’s life. Unaware of this, Victor immediately goes after Nasser, the currency exchanger. He tells Victor the deceased is at the bottom of the bay and admits that the leader got away. Through all of this, Marisa hasn’t bothered to tell her husband what’s going on, as she decides not to trust the police or Victor with this news. Instead, she and Laura sell their apartment to make the transfer, leaving the funds at the designated transfer spot. Pedro is returned, beaten and bruised. Victor finally catches up with the family, being sure to give Pedro a piece of his mind. Enraged, Victor tries to figure out what to do next. The family are still in danger and Pedro’s stupidity has only made things worse. “I’m tired Pedro,” Victor says, as he finds himself growing ever-disillusioned by Pedro’s actions. It’s a story we’ve seen a lot over this season but Pedro decides to try and get clean. He wants to do it with Jasmin but she refuses, leaving him no alternative but to do it alone. We then skip forward three months later. The family pack up their things and prepare to leave while Pedro attends rehab. She’s moving to Brasilia but Pedro decides against joining her. He struggles to find his place, although Victor supports him with his idea of setting up a beer stand on the beach. With a permit from city council, Victor stands by his son’s side and it seems maybe Pedro is ready to move past his transgressions. News flash: he’s not. After working for a while, he runs into Viviana who shows up at the beach. It doesn’t take long for him to get wrapped up in this heady world of drink and drugs, heading to a club down at the Copacabana. He initially refuses to take drugs though, but when he sees Barradas, a tense stand-off ensues. He uses Vivane as a human shield before driving off together…and allowing himself a line or two. News of this reaches Victor, who’s absolutely crushed by his son again. He doesn’t show up for work and worse, the front page of the newspaper shows his incidents from the club for all to see. As the season closes out, Pedro finds his time is up. The police close in on him as Pedro throws a grenade and waits for it to blow.
The Episode Review
Dom finishes off its first season with teasing glimpses of a follow-up. However, this actually works quite well as a standalone story showing the horrors or drugs and how easy it is to fall back into the trap again after getting clean. In a way, it’s been quite frustrating seeing Pedro constantly sabotage his own progress through these years, and it’s hard not to feel bad for Victor. His undercover operation with Ribeiro all those years ago has made him instrumental in helping to spread coke across the country. Even worse, it’s now gone global with the illegal gun smuggling operation we saw parts of across the season. However, this episode feels a little contrived in the way it forces Marisa into keeping the truth from her husband after selling the apartment. Given how closely she and Victor have worked together to help Pedro over the years – despite their arguments – you’d think she would have at least phoned him. Anyway, the blurred line between right and wrong is ultimately what’s made these final set of episodes so interesting. It essentially shows how there’s no clear answer on either side of this war on drugs. In the end, Dom bows out with a tragic cautionary tale depicting the destruction drugs can cause on a family and how widespread the problem is. While the story hasn’t always fired on all cylinders and the cyclical nature of Pedro Dom getting clean and then back on drugs again is repeated a little too much, the show has been an enjoyable and enthralling crime drama nonetheless.
