The Final Problem Ending Explained: Directed by Félix Viscarret and based on Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s novel, Netflix’s Spanish series El problema final stars José Coronado as Basil, Martiño Rivas as Francisco Foxá, Maribel Verdú as Mrs Raquel Ausländer, María Valverde as Adela Figueroa, José Condessa as Tony, Cristina Kovani as Vicky, Pepón Nieto as Doctor Seruya, Gonzalo de Castro as Fonseca, Yaiza Guimaré as Frau Klemmer, and others.
The Final Problem Ending Explained
Was Basil Able to Figure Out Who the Killer Was?
Yes. By the end of The Final Problem, Basil managed to understand that Elisa, who was masquerading as Adela Figueroa, was behind all those killings. First of all, Basil had problems linking all the killings together since there were many possible interpretations of the events, and Francisco Foxá was also a suspect. But then, when the event was reenacted in order to create the film, Basil managed to solve the mystery. Having examined the pavilion very carefully, he understood that the so-called suicide of the woman whom people took for Elisa could not be a real suicide.
The orange shawl, the position of the chair, the absence of sand by the door and the tampered rope helped him realise that everything was staged on purpose. Basil not only identified the technique used but took steps to verify the identity of the woman who introduced herself as Adela and discovered enough inconsistencies to conclude that it was an identity theft. He had noted earlier that the hands of this woman seemed like the hands of a typist, and this was inconsistent with the rich Adela’s identity.
Later, he discovered Elisa’s old RAF ID card and came to know that the woman whom he was talking to was Elisa. He also established the connection between the details of Mr Klemmer and Elisa’s own life and came to know that all the killings were part of a large-scale revenge scheme. In the end, Basil came to know that it was Elisa who killed Adela, Dr Seruya, and Klemmer on purpose.
Why Did Elisa Kill Adela in The Final Problem?
Elisa murdered the true Adela to take her identity and get away from the life which she had always hated. These two women had switched their identities on arrival at the hotel, giving both of them a chance to live a life which would otherwise not have been possible for either of them. Elisa, being Adela’s assistant, developed more and more jealousy due to the difference in their lives. Adela was a rich woman who enjoyed respect and the luxury of living any way she wished, whereas Elisa had spent several years serving her and witnessing the luxuries she had enjoyed.
This involved Elisa planning to murder the genuine Adela and ensure that everyone thought that Elisa was the one who was dead. Elisa attacked Adela at the temple using a stool and set up the murder so that it appeared like suicide. Elisa used the pulley to hoist up the body and deliberately broke the ropes to ensure that they snapped at some point. Elisa further used the shawl and the chair to make it appear that the pavilion was locked from within. In this way, Elisa was able to walk off the scene, with everyone thinking that she was dead.
Why Did the Killer Kill Dr Seruya?
Dr Seruya had been assassinated because he had unwittingly discovered the manipulation of the alleged suicide attempt. Upon analysing the body, it became clear to the doctor that things were not what they seemed at first glance. In other words, the doctor had realised that there was something fishy about the rope. It had become apparent to him that someone had set up the death and had staged the murder. Nevertheless, rather than exposing the murderer, Seruya planned on blackmailing him.
Elisa realised that the information that Seruya had was a very serious threat to her whole scheme. If Seruya started telling people that this death was really a murder, the identity Elisa created for herself would start falling to pieces, and it would finally become known that Elisa was an imposter. Therefore, Elisa concluded that the only safe thing for her was to kill Seruya before he used this information to hurt her in some way. This way, the murder of Seruya cannot be considered a part of Elisa’s original revenge scheme.
Why Was Mr Klemmer Killed?
Elisa’s revenge mission was meant for Mr Klemmer. After some time, Basil learns that Mr Klemmer had something to do with the death of Elisa’s husband, John. During World War II, John, who was a pilot, had been shot down over Dresden and imprisoned. When he tried to escape with other prisoners from the Gorbitz camp, they were caught by a German squadron and were sentenced to death. Since the orders for their execution had been signed by Hans Ludwig Klemmer, Klemmer must have been directly involved in their death. What had angered Elisa even more was the fact that Klemmer had gone scot-free after the war and had managed to lead an almost normal life.
Elisa took the visit to Santa Agueda as an opportunity to get near Klemmer and kill him. Elisa had left some portion of a Paris Match article, which was in connection with Klemmer’s past, and this made Klemmer search for it secretly. Later on, Basil realised that Klemmer had been shown his past by Elisa, who used that as one of her plans. Another function of Elisa’s disguise as Adela was that, if she managed to kill Klemmer and disguise herself as another person, she would then manage to kill her enemy without being discovered by anyone. The death of Klemmer was the murder that Elisa wanted from the beginning.
How Was Basil Connected to the Killer?
At the ending of The Final Problem, we get to know that the relationship between Basil and Elisa turned out to be much more personal for him than he originally thought. Years ago, before the events in Santa Agueda, Elisa was one of Basil’s lovers. They first met at one of his success parties, where Elisa was still a young girl hoping to become an actress. Basil fueled her ambitions, and he even told her that he would arrange an audition for her. Elisa believed him, and she thought that he really wanted to help her start her acting career.
But instead of that, Basil stopped contacting Elisa and made his theatre colleagues reject her phone calls. For Elisa, it was not just a broken relationship but a sense of betrayal. The reason for that is that Elisa deliberately put Basil on the list of suspects in the murder case. It was not her initial plan to have him there; however, once she saw that he was one of the people who had been her ex-lover and caused her pain, she took advantage of the situation and turned the whole case into a personal matter.
She left evidence which could incriminate him and tried to kill him by trapping him in the car, which would run all the time, and he would die due to poisonous gases. Basil, on the other hand, knew about her plans and escaped from the trap. At the end of The Final Problem series, when they finally met each other, they were no longer just a murderer and a detective.
Did Basil Hand the Killer Over to the Police?
No! Basil never handed Elisa to the police; when he faced her, he had long figured out that it was she who committed all those killings, and he understood the reasons that drove her to take revenge. Once Basil understood that he himself was among those individuals who had wounded her in such an immense way that made her take revenge, he felt guilty about his actions and took responsibility for her downfall. Thus, Basil decided not to hand Elisa over to the police but to give her a second chance.
In this way, at the end of The Final Problem episode 4, he told Elisa that it is not as if she is free since he can choose at any time to come back and report her. It was not because he thought that what she had done was justified in any way that led him to do this. In fact, he felt that turning her in would ruin her life once again, just as he felt like he had ruined her life before. Thus, when Basil solved the mystery, he left it as such without telling anyone. In this way, their relationship became complex as both Basil and Elisa knew things about each other.
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