HBO Max Spanish action series, “Garcia!” based on the graphic novel of the same name, tells the story of a super-agent named Garcia, who is brought back to life from his cryo-sleep of 60 years by a young girl named Antonia. She then finds herself in the middle of a sinister plot that dates back to the Cold War era in Europe.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Garcia’ Episode 1: Recap And Ending
1961- Cold War
Garcia (Francisco Ortiz) and his assistant Ortiz breach into a train in the Aragonese Pyrenees Mountains, Spain. Inside the train, they face Winters (Francisco Reyes), another super-agent, and militants, along with Professor Neffenberg (Daniel Freire) of Germany. After an immense fight, Garcia manages to throw Winters off the train but is killed while trying to protect Ortiz, who is held at gunpoint by Neffenberg.
2022
Spain is on the brink of chaos as presidential candidate Catalina Bellido (Silvia Abascal) is kidnapped amidst her campaigns right before the elections. All media houses and newspaper agencies are bent on covering the incident from every angle possible. One of these newspaper agencies is Cronica 24, where 23-year-old Antonia (Veki Velilla) works as an intern. She lives with her father (Emilio Gutiérrez Caba), who works at the Ministry, and has a boyfriend, Ricardo, AKA Riki (Nico Romero), although she doesn’t like the tag. One day, while leaving for work, she receives an envelope without any address. It has some pictures, documents, and an old hard drive. While trying to insert the drive into her computer, her boss Verdu observes her and calls her to his office. She then receives her final warning as an intern. If she doesn’t pitch a topic soon, she will have to leave in the middle of her internship.
Antonia speaks to her senior, Silvia, regarding her issue. Silvia encourages her to bring something up if she is unable to find any topic. This is when Antonia shows her a picture of the man [Garcia] she found in the envelope. Silvia recognizes the structure behind the man. It is the San Antonio del Rio in the town of Pinar de San Antonio. There is also a numeric code among the documents that Antonia types in on her laptop for searching but finds nothing. She decides to visit Pinar de San Antonio to find out more about the picture. She takes the drive, docs, pictures, and her laptop and leaves.
Somewhere else, a blue light starts flashing on a screen, and an agent notifies his chief that a Code 5 alarm has gone off. The chief immediately orders to track the IP address of the device in which the code was entered. The message on the screen reads, “Protocol 5 enabled”. However, the blue light turns off, which means the device has been turned off. The chief decides to notify a team that is in the middle of another mission in Colombia. The team is being led by Winters.
Antonia arrives at Pinar de San Antonio in her father’s car. There, after searching for a bit, she finds an old man who recognizes the guy [Garcia] in the picture. He had met the guy when he was a kid back in 1951. His brother Jesus was one of the many Republican prisoners who were made to cut stones for The Valley. Once, he was sent by his mom to bring food to his brother Jesus, who had planned an escape and hid in a cave near The Valley. But unfortunately, he was caught by Garcia, and his men, who took the food container and allowed him to return. His brother was never found and was assumed to be dead.
On the way back, Antonia’s car is attacked by some men in an SUV, but she somehow manages to escape. She tells her boss Verdu about it, but all that he wants is for her to return safely. Antonia decides to visit The Valley to look for the records of the prisoners, for she might find a clue there. She is able to access the archives after causing a distraction for the guards. But inside the archives, too, two men from Winters’ team find her. She jumps off a window and runs off, followed by the men who now have guns in their hands. The long escape, involving jumping off a bridge into a dam and swimming to shore, leads Antonia to an underground facility. Winters’s men are on their way to her. Using the hard drive and the numeric code (that she has been carrying inside her backpack) as a key, she inadvertently turns on the facility and wakes up a man who has been in cryo-sleep for many years.
A naked Garcia isn’t able to register what’s going on at first, but after Antonia explains how she came to find him and the documents related to him, he calms down. As Garcia puts on clothes that are also inside the facility, Antonia hears the agents coming in their direction. She closes the door of the facility just in the nick of time. However, the men break in after blowing up the door using explosives. With the ceiling about to come down, Garcia takes on the men and tells Antonia to run through an alternate door. As she runs out of the facility and escapes, Garcia, the only one alive, pulls himself out of the rubble, comes out of the facility, and stares at a new world.
‘Garcia’ Episode 2: Recap
Madrid, 1961
Garcia meets his ladylove Felicidad Martinez AKA Feli, in front of the women’s salon she works at, Garbon. But their date is short-lived as Garcia is called for work. Before leaving, he promises Feli that he will be back even if he is late.
Present
Antonia explains to Riki and his friends what happened to her recently, but none of them are willing to believe her. She returns home and goes to bed. Meanwhile, Garcia walks his way to the Garbon to see if he can find out anything about Feli but instead finds out that it is now for men. He then comes across a Cronica 24 newspaper and is reminded that it is the very newspaper that Antonia works for. He decides to head to its office.
Winters arrives at the secret base where the numeric code (entered by Antonia) was first detected. He takes charge of finding the person and goes to his personal room. In front of the table, there is a picture of Antonia. On the wall is a picture of Professor Neffenberg. Winters injects himself with a serum. This is the serum that gives him his super-strength and makes him invulnerable to pain.
Antonia comes to her office and tells Verdu about her experience. But he, too, like Riki, doesn’t believe her and gets rather irritated. She then tells Silvia, who tells her about a podcast, “The Threshold of the Unknown,” that talks about “unbelievable things .”Antonia makes up her mind to meet the person behind the podcast. After she leaves, a man walks into the Cronica 24 office. Silvia recognizes him as the man from Antonia’s picture. It is Garcia.
Antonia arrives at the podcast station and meets a man named Aquilino. She shows him Garcia’s picture, and though he doesn’t recognize Garcia, he does recognize the insignia that Garcia has on his suit, i.e., IX, the Roman numeral for 9. In other words, Section 9. He takes Antonia to the archive section, where he shows her documents about Section 9. It was created in 1939 as France’s secret police under the orders of Francisco Franco, the then-dictator of Spain. Franco brought Professor Neffenberg from Germany to Spain in 1945, who gave shape to Franco’s madness with immortality by making a formula that could create super-agents. Garcia was among the first of these super-agents. Apparently, the super-agent and the Nazi scientist both disappeared 60 years ago. Aquilino then takes Antonia to a bar to see a friend who used to work at Section 9, but he doesn’t turn up. Antonia returns home and finds Garcia waiting for her. She manages to hide Garcia from her father and lets him sleep in her room for the night.
Madrid, 1961
Garcia arrives at the secret Section 9 headquarters, where he meets Chencho, the tech guy, so to speak. He then goes to the meeting room where he and Ortiz receive orders for their next mission, i.e., to track down and capture Professor Neffenberg, who has fled with his work, and return him to the North American embassy.
Present
The next morning, Antonia and Garcia decide to look for some members of Section 9. The first name he mentions is Chencho. Garcia is surprised at how quickly Antonia traced Chencho’s address. He is, after all, unaccustomed to the internet. At the address, which seems to be a mechanic workshop, Garcia meets an overwhelmed and aged Chencho, who hugs him. Chencho reveals that Ortiz fled and was never seen again. Section 9 lost its power, and Chencho was fired. He now runs the workshop along with his sons. However, he tells Garcia that not all was lost after Section 9 got extinguished. He then takes Garcia and Antonia to a hidden room where they find gadgets, suits, and a car. Garcia uses Chencho’s custom radio to see if anyone replies. And someone does. Garcia gives them an extraction point. “Recovery point number 27. In 2 hours.”
Antonia is adamant about going to the extraction point with Garcia. However, Garcia manages to take the car without her, leaving her at a hotel where they halted. Antonia uses her laptop to track her cell phone that is still in the car and finds that Garcia is heading towards Madrid. This, however, enables Winters to track her down using the IP his team had acquired earlier (Antonia’s laptop being turned on again). Winters and his men arrive at the hotel, but Antonia again manages to escape in a different car, its owner having been injured unconscious by Winters.
‘Garcia’ Episode 2: Ending Explained – Who Is Ortiz?
Antonia arrives at the location where Garcia’s car, which has her phone, stops. It is the very spot that Garcia shared with the agent on the radio, i.e., recovery point number 27. There is a campaign organized by Catalina Bellido’s party New Democracy. The supporters of the opposition party have also arrived there, and in the middle of the commotion, Antonia finds Riki and, finally, Garcia. But before they could leave the spot, Garcia spots Winters. Antonia and Garcia are given a lift by a stranger before Winters can get to them. The man takes them to a hardware store underneath which is a secret hideout. The stranger brings them to a table and asks them to sit. The boss will join them shortly. Within a few minutes, an old guy reveals himself from the shadows. Garcia recognizes him immediately. It’s Ortiz. But for Antonia, the guy is someone whom she has known since she was born. It’s her dad.
With Ortiz still alive, a lot of things will come to light about Section 9. Winters and Professor Neffenberg’s whereabouts in the last 60 years will also be confirmed. We do not know who mailed the parcel with Garcia’s info to Antonia’s address. Neither do we know how Garcia went into the cryo-chamber. And why Winters is bent upon killing Garcia. The first two episodes have only introduced the different characters and their connections. Episode 3 will put the plot into play.
