Sintonia takeaway: The past is never too far behind

KondZilla's Brazilian crime drama Sintonia just returned to Netflix with its third season. Featuring six new episodes, this offbeat show continued the story of Doni (MC JottaPê), Nando (Christian Malheiros), and Rita (Bruna Mascarenhas), all exploring their new paths in life. The more evolved and mature take on the three youths from the favela resulted in a good, well-rounded season.

Like other seasons, this one too overflowed with drama, twists, and some excellent character development. Rita and Doni's latest journey became the third season's focus as it navigated the characters' coming-of-age story amidst the street life of Brazil.

Like other seasons, the third one left behind some valuable lessons that defined the show, the biggest one being — crime never pays, it only pays back.

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Sintonia takeaway: Past crimes always catch up

From the very beginning, Sintonia made it clear how, in a place like a favela, crime can often be the only way out. One of the three protagonists, Nando, has always been the center of focus, trying to depict the struggles of the street. He walked down the path of crime too soon, thinking that that it was his only way to a comfortable and respectable life.

Just like Sintonia often placed the blame on the surroundings for raising criminals, this season has also aptly depicted the price one must be ready to pay if they choose the dark path of the underworld. Sometimes, the price may be the inability to get out of there, much like Nando struggled, and sometimes it may be something more.

This season depicted Nando's success in the criminal world, but by the end, it also showed how the past eventually caught up to him.

The ending of Sintonia saw the three friends finally coming back together after having their own misadventures and coming out on top. This included Nando's resolve to leave the world of crime once and for all and start afresh. He decided on opening a cafe business and detached himself from all his ex-compatriots.

However, this is far more difficult in reality than one could imagine. Even though Nando decided to leave the world of crime, he could not possibly go back and erase every wrong thing he had done up till then. The ending saw a few police officers burst into Nando's cafe with their guns pointed.

Moments earlier, the three friends were peacefully talking about the future. In the blink of an eye, their world turned upside down — Nando was kneeling on the ground with the police pointing guns at all of them. This indicated that despite his good intentions for the future, his past eventually caught up to him. Soon after, two other gunmen entered the cafe, possibly Nando's allies, and a violent shootout began.

The screen cut to black before the shootout occurred, with only sound cues letting the viewers know about the scuffle in the cafe. The show did not elaborate on what happened after this, leaving viewers waiting for the next season to find out.

Nando from Sintonia (Image via Netflix)

The moral of the story, through Nando, was that it is impossible to escape the past, so whatever we do now has a way of coming back to us.

All the episodes of Sintonia are now streaming on Netflix.