Someone Has to Die is a 2020 Netflix Spanish-Mexican miniseries created and directed by Manolo Caro, creator of the series The House of Flowers. The series takes place in 1950s Spain and consists of three episodes revolving around a conservative and traditional society during the Franco regime "where appearances and family ties play a key role". The series features an all-star cast, including Carmen Maura and Cecilia Suárez. All three episodes were released simultaneously by Netflix on October 16, 2020.
Tropes in Someone Has to Die
- Anyone Can Die: Well, unsurprisingly, anyone. Gabino's grandfather, Gregorio, Alonso, Lázaro and Amparo.
- Armoured Closet Gay: Alonso, Gabino's childhood friend, is revealed to be one, starting off with assisting his friends in torturing Gabino and Lázaro, to then passing by a cruising ground while imagining himself and a man having sex.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Amparo and her son Gregorio.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Cayetana, Gabino's arranged fiancée, who initially appears to be nice, sympathetic and generous, but in reality is a conceited, spoiled, arrogant, cunning and spiteful person who seeks by all means to marry him and later get her revenge on him and Lázaro after they turn down her advances.
- Bury Your Gays: Alonso, who is gay, gets shot and killed by Amparo.
- Evil Is Petty: Cayetana fuels the rumours about Gabino and Lázaro's homosexual relationship in spitefulness after being rejected by both of them.
- Final Girl: A gender-inverted example with Gabino, who, aside from his mother, is the only character left alive to face his murderous grandmother.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Despite behaving hostile towards Gabino since his return to Spain, Alonso was right in urging him to leave the city as soon as possible because of his sexuality due to the conservative society he lives in. It later turns out that Alonso is gay as well.
- Karma Houdini: Cayetana suffers no punishment for her actions.
- Likes Older Women: Lázaro, who falls for Gabino's mother Mina. He even tells Cayetana he'd rather be with a woman, and not a girl.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Lázaro and Mina have sex in a nearby part of the woods and are seen by Cayetana, who sells them out to Amparo and Gregorio.
- No Ending: The series abruptly ends with Gabino shooting his own grandmother dead to avenge his grandfather, Alonso and Lázaro, with Gabino and his mother's fates unknown.
- Preserve Your Gays: Gabino is the only gay character to survive.
- Put on a Bus: Rosario, the maid who worked for the Falcón family, resigns and disappears without saying a word after her imprisoned husband dies and secretly passes Gabino's letter to Gregorio revealing that Amparo killed her elderly husband.
- Rich Bitch: Cayetana, and she gets it from her mother.
- Villain Team-Up: Cayetana with Amparo and Gregorio to exact revenge on Gabino and Lázaro.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Alonso to Gabino for not taking his advice to leave the city before anything bad could happen to him.
