Netflix released the new Spanish series ‘Muted’ and promoted it as a captivating murder mystery following the story of a psychopath. The suspenseful thriller premiered with six episodes on May 19th, 2023, and is already gaining all the attention it should.
However, it is too early to say if the show will repeat the gargantuan success achieved by its Spanish cousin ‘Money Heist.’ But for now, the play, more specifically its ending, has been the talk of the town.
Let us see if the show has lived up to the hype. More importantly, what did that intriguing ending mean?
What Is The Plot of Netflix Muted?
Set in a city named Bilbao, located in Northern Spain, the story follows Sergio Ciscar, played by Aron Piper. The man doesn’t talk and has recently been released from the juvie. It is revealed that he has spent six years in the lockup over the charges of killing his parents. Rightly or not, that is the question that drives the central plot.
As the different layers in the story get uncovered, we investigate this mysterious man and his equally suspenseful past through a psychiatrist named Ana Dussuel, played by Almudena Amor. She believes wholeheartedly that there is way more to Sergio’s story than what meets the eye.
The series gets the viewers into the groove right away as the murder takes place in the first few minutes. Two bodies slam into a car on the street. Seconds later, we see Sergio, literal blood on his hands, telling his sister, ‘It’s over.’ We have no choice but to be convinced that this minor boy is the culprit.
After spending six years in a juvenile center, the boy comes out, now infamous as ‘The Balcony Killer.’ While he was in, investigations carried on. It was not the question of ‘who’ anymore. It was the ‘why’ the authorities were looking for.
However, Sergio stayed quiet and never made a peep about his motives for perpetrating this heinous act. He is set free, but not entirely.
A psychiatrist named Ana Dussuel becomes obsessed with Sergio’s story and plants cameras all over his place to investigate the mystery. Ana has been following the case since the day of the murder, and she is convinced that Sergio is not a psychopath. We slowly come closer to the truth in the six episodes as the story unfolds unexpectedly.
Netflix’s ‘Muted’ Ending Explained
Throughout the series, the viewers are kept on their toes about who the real killer is. With Ana being convinced by examining Sergio’s innocence, the audiences just know that there is way more to the story than what we are made to see on screen.
Towards the end, as the story unfolds, we learn the truth behind that mysterious night, which is as shocking as we had presumed.
Sergio finally opens up about the events of the day. In his version of the story, his mother is the villain. Apparently, she was drugging both Sergio and his sister Noa, experimenting on them with complex drugs.
On that fateful day of the accident, she attempted to drug Noa, which compelled Sergio and his father Javier to stop her at any cost. In the ensuing altercation, Javier pushes Blanca off the balcony. Overtaken by immense guilt and grief, Javier also jumps down from the building, killing himself too. The trauma of witnessing both his parents die within a few minutes right in front of his eyes left Sergio with an immense concussion. Hence, he stopped talking at all.
However, there is one more twist. Noa arrives at Sergio’s apartment and reveals what exactly happened that day. She explains that her brother was facing a ‘mental block’ that day. He had been psychologically disturbed all his childhood and could never fit into society. Their mother, however cold, was always trying to help Sergio and was drugging him to help him overcome his troubles.
Noa’s version seems more authentic, and through Sergio’s reaction, we also get to know that perhaps she was telling the truth. This destroys Sergio, who visits the same balcony accompanied by Ana.
Although Ana is somehow convinced too that Sergio committed the murders, she has an inexplicable empathy toward him. Perhaps she connects with him on a deeper level and comes from the same psychological conundrum of never being able to be a properly functioning part of society.
In the very last scene, someone is seen falling from the same balcony. It’s not made clear whether it’s Ana or Sergio. The ending is left open to interpretation. Also, it sets the stage for a possible season 2 through an intriguing cliffhanger.
Who Is the Real Killer in Muted?
The mysterious plot of the series ‘Muted’ follows the classic ‘Roshomon effect’ of storytelling. There is more than one version of the story, and the audiences are left to carefully analyze the characters’ actions and decide on their own.
Sergio acts as an unreliable narrator, claiming that his father accidentally killed his mother and then jumped from the balcony. His sister, who is of sound mind and rationale, claims that it was Sergio who killed their parents.
So, for now, it is clearly established that Sergio, in fact, is the murderer. It seems he had all the reasons or mental instability to parricide of such nature.
At this time, there hasn’t been an official announcement for the show’s second season. But the way it ended with a cliffhanger, we can certainly hope that Netflix doesn’t pull the plug on the show, as it has done so some of its best thrillers in the past, as did with ‘Mindhunters.’
Muted is available to stream on Netflix.
What do you think? Did Sergio really kill his parents, or is there more to the story regarding Noa’s true intentions?
Let us know in the comments.