‘Brinda’ Web-Series Recap And Ending Explained: Did Brinda And Satya Reunite?

Brinda, the title of the new SonyLIV murder mystery series, is a rare phenomenon in Telugu cinema. The show is a straightforward crime investigation with no distractions or confusion that would leave the audience mind-boggled for the wrong reasons. v is the name of the lead character. She is a local Telangana cop who began an investigation into a death and it uncovers many unpleasant truths. This eight-part series exposes family secrets that Brinda was not aware of.

Spoilers Ahead

What happened to Chinni and Saachi?

The show began with the death of a local villager in an unusual fashion. The local priest claimed the goddess and nature were unhappy with the villagers, and a sacrifice needed to be performed to save the village from calamity. The priest pointed out Chinni, a very young girl whose mother tried to stop the atrocity from taking place. She assured her older son Saachi that nobody would harm his sister. On the night of the sacrifice, the mother and her children tried to run away but they ended up getting separated. As Chinni was placed in a truck headed to the city, Saachi got lost in the forest while holding a wooden doll he had made for his little sister. He witnessed his mother being killed by the same priest and the charred remains of a young girl, who he assumed was his sister Chinni. An angry Saachi burned the village down out of rage and was subsequently sent to a juvenile home for the arson that killed many villagers. 

How did Brinda begin to investigate the Thilak murder case?

Many years later, it is learned that the young girl was Brinda, who was now an SI with a local police station in Telangana. She was rescued and adopted by police officer Raghunath Krishna and his wife Vasundhara after the girl was found in a truck during a routine police check in the year 1996. Brinda was a quiet woman who was haunted by the memories of her childhood. She showed symptoms of insomnia, for which she was on meds to keep her mind away from the unpleasant thoughts of her childhood. Her father was no more, and she lived with her mother and her sister, Chutki. Brinda and Chutki were not on good terms, as the former believed her older adopted sister hogged most of their parents’ time.

Brinda, her colleague Sarathi, and her boss Solomon came across a dead body in the sewage. The marks on his body made Brinda conclude it was murder, but Solomon passed it off as a suicide to avoid any investigation. The postmortem report made Solomon take the case seriously as it was dubbed as a gruesome murder; however, he did not investigate the case further because there was no name or any other identification on the dead body.

When do Brinda and Sarathi realize there is a serial killer at large?

Brinda took the initiative of finding out more about the murder and concluded a flesh-eating bird could have made brutal marks on someone’s instruction. She found out the deceased’s name was Thilak. Even though Brinda was admonished for reopening the case, her investigation made her conclude it could be a serial killer situation as the marks on the body were precise and made her believe the killer must have carried out murders before. 

Brinda’s research brought forward many cases featuring the same modus operandi. Sarathi was impressed with her work and requested Solomon to consider further investigating the serial killer angle. Solomon’s superior was impressed with the research and formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT). Initially, Solomon tried to sideline Brinda to claim the credit to himself. It was Sarathi who insisted Solomon be replaced by Brinda because of the work she put into bringing the case forward. 

Who did the deranged man kill?

As the SIT team was formed, a deranged man with his flesh-eating bird had gone after a bus driver named Abdul, killed him, and threw his mortal remains into a stream. The deranged man was arrested by the local police for smoking grass, but he refused to share his name. His meltdown in the police station had the cops feeling bad for him, and he was soon let go as there was no case against him so far.

What does the SIT team discover?

Sarathi and Brinda, as a part of the SIT, began to look out for missing person cases including Abdul’s disappearance. Abdul’s disappearance got them closer to the spot where he was killed, which had many clues about who the serial killer could be. After a thorough look at the crime scene, Brinda came across an ATM receipt that had details of a bank account that belonged to a certain Kabir Anand. This was the breakthrough the SIT was looking for, and they moved ahead with this detail.

How did Brinda and Sarathi meet Anand?

The bank account number found on the ATM receipt led them to Kabir Anand, who ran a charitable trust that worked for the upliftment and empowerment of the destitute. Kabir Anand lived with his paralyzed ex-advocate father and divided most of his time between the NGO and his job as a professor at a local university. Anand was brought in for questioning, but he claimed to have no knowledge of or relation to the murder that took place. He was given a clean chit as the SIT team never had any concrete evidence against him. However, Kabir Anand faced a tragedy as his paralyzed father was killed in the same way the others were, and it jolted the SIT team, for they did not see this coming. A distraught Anand asked the police to stay away, and the police obliged.

When did the mass murderer theory emerge?

As the SIT team’s investigation was not leading them anywhere, Brinda had a breakthrough after she came across a newspaper article about many people of a faith being killed in an explosion. This news article made Brinda believe the said person was killing and replacing one person at a time to find an opening to get to a larger congregation. This made her look into details of the people killed and their association with religious bodies. When that connection was established, the SIT team concluded this was a mass murder scenario. The police were now looking for one person who was killing many people at a time. The latest incident had a group of Muslims in a bus being driven by the said deranged man who’d killed Abdul, the driver. The deranged man crashed the bus into a river, killing many. He saved himself, but his phone call with Kabir Anand revealed that the latter was not who he proclaimed himself to be. Kabir Anand’s real identity was Satya. The man who’d killed many people by causing this accident had a connection with Satya. 

What was Thakur’s history?

Abdul’s murder led Brinda to a CCTV camera near the railway crossing. As per the modus operandi, the dead body after the murder was dropped into a stream and the railway crossing CCTV footage near it where Abdul’s body was found put them in touch with the local police station who had arrested the said deranged man. The local cops claimed to have let him go as he was mentally unstable, but they had his fingerprints on file. The fingerprint analysis gave them the name of a certain Thakur, who they learned had lived in a juvenile home for many years. One of the villagers from Thakur’s village lets Brinda and Sarathi know about his history. Thakur’s mother died in childbirth, and ever since, all the villagers, including his grandmother, considered him to be a curse. Every bad event or incident was blamed on Thakur, and the young boy was chained outside his house by the grandmother. However, after another death, the villagers decided to sacrifice Thakur once and for all, an act which was supported by his grandmother. This made him kill her instantly, and the young teen Thakur was sent to a juvenile home. 

How did Thakur and Satya meet?

A young Thakur became good friends with an older Saachi, who was now going by his real name, Satya. Satya was now in his post-teens and was a brilliant student who’d scored good marks in 10th and 12th grade. The two bonded over their shared trauma of having lost people to blind faith. Thakur and Anand were basically brothers, as the former would follow any instructions given by the latter, which included killing many people who follow their respective faith without questioning it. This went on this way for years, including the bus accident that killed many devotees. Thakur was mentally distressed because of his traumatic childhood and the abuse he was put through, which made him question God all the time. Satya tried to convince him that God did not exist. Satya was a staunch atheist, but he was also targeting innocent devotees from across religions in his bid to prove his point.

Was Thakur killed?

The police, however, knew only of Thakur and assumed he was operating alone, even though Brinda had a hunch that there could be someone instructing and guiding him. The only way out was to confront Thakur through a televised press conference in which Brinda came forward and issued an ultimatum about hunting him down and arresting him. This distressed Thakur further, and Satya decided to move him to another town till the situation calmed down. Thakur did not have the right kind of mental or emotional acuity to understand the seriousness of the matter and fell into the trap set by Brinda as he reached her doorstep, intending to kill her. Thakur escaped from the spot on realizing he was surrounded by the police. The chase between him and the cops was intense, and eventually led to his death by a gunshot that seemingly came from Sarathi. It was Satya who killed Thakur to make sure his name was never revealed as the co-conspirator in these deaths.

How did Satya know Raghunath Krishna?

An entire episode is dedicated to a flashback that involves Satya and Brinda’s father, Raghunath Krishna. She found the name Satya branded on Thakur’s shoulder, which solidified her theory about someone being the brains behind the mass murders. Brinda and Sarathi learnt that Satya was Thakur’s close friend in the juvenile home. On going through Satya’s documents from the juvenile home, she learned her father, Raghunath Krishna, was his guardian and had funded his education and offered additional financial support in the hope he would turn out to be a law-abiding educated citizen. Raghunath Krishna hoped to unite the siblings once Satya got himself a decent job. This information was only known to Raghunath Krishna and his wife Vasundhara, who was initially not keen on sharing it with Brinda, worrying her daughter would leave them. 

Raghunath Krishna went out of his way to change his radical mindset of being intolerant towards people who are believers. Satya took time, but slowly he became open-minded. Finally, the day arrived when Raghunath Krishna made plans for Satya to meet his sister Brinda, but the young boy was asked to rescue a pregnant girl who was being threatened by her community for having a child out of wedlock. On reaching the spot, his words did not have any effect on the people, who were hell-bent on killing the pregnant girl and her mother in the name of their faith. A heated argument between them led to Raghunath Krishna and Satya being stabbed viciously. While Raghunath Krishna died, Satya survived. The guilt over his mentor’s death and the reason behind it made him start a crusade against the believers of every faith. With Thakur by his side, they began to work together and never looked back.

Was Satya’s real identity revealed?

As Brinda found out Satya was her brother, she knew she had to seek him and stop him from carrying out further acts of crime. Brinda realized Satya was committing crimes because he assumed his mother and sister were killed by the villagers. Satya was taking revenge against all those who’d wronged him and many in the name of faith. His intention was right, but he was still committing a crime. She had to let him know about her identity and remain hopeful that would put a stop to the carnage. Brinda had no photograph in hand to seek Satya, which was why it was difficult initially. She went through many papers in the case file and came across Anand’s father’s kidney donor-related paperwork which was where she came across an image of the real Kabir Anand. 

The revelation that the person she met had stolen the identity of the real Kabir Anand was enough for her to conclude that he was Satya. Brinda’s assumption that the man who ran the NGO was her brother was solely based on her logical leaps. She never came across any concrete proof of it, and this narrative flaw was not corrected by the makers. Brinda probably had a hunch about who Satya could be. An empty NGO office confirmed her doubt about Satya. 

Did Brinda and Satya reunite?

Brinda and Sarathi found out where the next big religious congregation was supposed to be. It was not very far from their town, where thousands of believers were to meet and dip in the temple pond at the onset of the lunar eclipse. Since they had uncovered the modus operandi right at the beginning of the investigation, it was not very hard for the SIT team to locate the next target. Their only aim was to either evacuate the temple premises or catch Satya before he set his plan in motion to kill all of them. There was a possibility the crime could kill thousands, and Brinda could not risk a tragedy of this size. She also did not want her brother to commit yet another crime in the name of his ideology. The police tried to evacuate the place, but they were overwhelmed by the devotees who could not be stopped from getting into the pond. Brinda was of the belief the water was contaminated and all could die if they stepped into it. 

Brinda was a smart police officer whose mind worked well in highly stressful moments, but the followers could not be convinced. As Sarathi and the rest of the SIT tried to control the crowd, Brinda ran into the forest to find Satya planning an act of arson that would kill many at the temple. She addressed him as Saachi, just like when she was little. This was a startling moment for both, as the siblings had not seen each other for two decades. Being stood across from each other after having faced a life-changing tragedy was a big deal for the two. Initially, Satya was unable to believe his sister was alive. On being convinced by Brinda, he still couldn’t abandon the plan he had in mind to kill the devotees. Satya claimed to be acting on the distress of many he knew who’d lost their loved ones because of God and the ones who instilled the fear of it. The killings at the temple would be revenge for him. 

Brinda tried her level best and brought up Raghunath Krishna, her adoptive father, whom she considers her god for saving her. According to her, God exists in people like her father, who went out of his way to reunite the siblings but had to pay with his life. Satya was not convinced as he was blinded by his hate. Brinda was just like her father, who could never tolerate violence as the solution to any problem. Since they were police officers, there was some tolerance training given to them in this context. Brinda couldn’t talk Satya down, and as a result she had to shoot him dead before he could start the fire. Brinda had no choice, as she chose her profession and the innocent people over her family. This was no god vs evil story as Satya was a victim, and not just the villain. He had reasons why he chose violence, even though it could not be justified. 

The show ended with Brinda holding the doll Satya had made for her many years ago and weeping at the thought of living with the guilt of killing her brother. She had lost any hope of meeting her family. Even when she had, after many years, destiny had other plans, and her life fell apart as soon as she learned Satya was a criminal.