Netflix needs to put a break on its weekly bland, gimmicky original thriller churning machine. I get that grounded crime fiction and hard sci-fi are the bread and butter of the streaming channel, but simply putting random clichéd narratives into the thriller format, hoping they will work anyway, is not going to cut it. Spanish thriller series The Gardener represents everything that usually goes wrong with such run-of-the-mill ventures—right from the poorly contrived narrative, the stereotypical and at times atrocious characterization, the adding of gimmicks that don’t even properly factor into the story, and the lackluster ending. The six-episode series feels extremely derivative in most aspects, but the worst part is that, despite all that, it couldn’t properly incorporate the functional elements of the ventures it rips off.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Couldn’t Elmer Kill Violeta?
La China Jurado, formerly a well-known actor, fell from grace and remained dependent on her agent/lover Tony for quite a while—until she caught him cheating and decided to leave on her own with her young son, Elmer. Driving in an agitated state of mind, China got into an accident, and the injury she sustained resulted in her leg being amputated. Elmer’s situation was much more concerning; he suffered from a head injury that caused the emotion receptor of his brain to stop functioning. China helped her son to cope with his new reality through positive reinforcement and encouragement, and as Elmer proved himself to be a gifted polymath with a keen interest in horticulture, China decided to take over a century-old nursery to let Elmer show his talents. Elmer found it difficult to connect with people for obvious reasons and completely dedicated himself to caring for plants. China’s presence in his life was the only shelter he needed.
Years later, Tony returned to China, seemingly seeking to rekindle their relationship, but soon it became clear to her that he was only trying to lay low after being involved in a horrible scandal of sexually assaulting a minor. As China called Tony out, she faced humiliation and insult, something which Elmer couldn’t tolerate as he was extremely protective of his mother. Putting his herbalist knowledge to work, Elmer created a poisonous concoction using ingredients from his nursery and ended up killing Tony by injecting him with it. China, despite being shocked and gutted, helped her son cover up his crime by burying Tony’s body in the nursery, and got the idea of using Elmer’s special ‘talent’ to make profit. From then on, Elmer became China’s killer for hire, as she took high-profile contracts and assigned her son to murder targets with meticulous precision. Elmer’s inability to feel emotion was a boon for China, as it allowed him to kill remorselessly, leaving almost no room for error, as in the span of seven years he took down over nine targets—at least, that’s what the official count of missing persons appeared to be. The bodies, all buried within the nursery grounds, acted as natural fertilizer for the picturesque gardens, a perfect cover for the graveyard created by the mother-son duo. There is an effort in the narrative to make this whole ordeal justifiable by making Elmer’s victims the dregs of society; it depends upon the viewers as to how they are going to assess that aspect. The sole reason for China to make her son go down a dark path just to rake in a huge sum was her desire to reacquire her ancestral property in Mexico.
Things take a turn when Elmer gets diagnosed with a benign tumor on his frontal cortex, which results in him suffering from occasional loss of consciousness and at times brings emotions back into his life. The aristocratic Sabela Costeira approaches China to have Violeta, a preschool teacher, eliminated, as she believes her to be the killer of her son, Xoan. In exchange, she promises an exorbitant sum that can make China’s dream of reclaiming her ancestral property an instant reality. While stalking Violeta to research her and find the perfect opportunity to strike, Elmer falls for her and finds her to be interested in him as well. Things only get more complicated as China realizes her son’s connection with Violeta is not only detrimental to her killer-for-hire business but also to her controlling grip over her own son.
Did Violeta kill Xoan?
As Elmer goes out with Violeta, Ramon, one of Xoan’s friends, interrupts their conversation and accuses Violeta of being Xoan’s killer. An aggrieved Elmer takes care of him in his usual way and seeks China’s help hiding his body. Sabela is disturbed by the unusual delay on the part of China, who herself struggles to convince her son that his relationship with Violeta has no future. On one occasion, Sabela steals Violeta’s dog, Milky, simply to spite her, and in exchange for her dog’s safe return, Violeta confesses that even though she was present during Sabela’s abusive son’s last moments, she had no part to play in his tragic demise. This differs from the statement she gave to the authorities, where Violeta mentioned that she wasn’t even around during Xoan’s death.
In reality, however, both of Violeta’s statements are lies, as she was indeed Xoan’s murderer. Violeta wanted to distance herself from her rich, abusive boyfriend, but with his ego boosted by wealth and false pride, Xoan was the type of person who couldn’t handle rejection and continually pestered her. Xoan followed Violeta to a river bridge and threatened to take his own life to force her to get back with him while insulting her at the same time. A furious Violeta pushed Xoan off of the bridge, resulting in him drowning in the river. The only other person who knew the truth of the incident was Violeta’s good friend, Catuxa, who was supportive of her actions and corroborated her lies in front of the authorities.
Why Elmer Didn’t Want To Have His Tumor Removed?
Meanwhile, two detectives of the missing persons unit, Torres and Carrera, begin their investigation in light of recent disappearances. There is an infidelity romance subplot going on between the detective duo, which I don’t think is worth mentioning given how out of place and ludicrous it is. Anyway, Carrera, the perceptive one, deduces that these incidents, along with a number of past occurrences, are in fact planned killings. Initially, the detective duo suspects the involvement of a serial killer or a psychopath and accordingly seeks help from a professor of psychology, but that possibility is ruled out after no pattern or particular MO is discovered—prompting Carrera to consider it to be a professional killing orchestrated by a hitman. Looking into the victims’ pasts, the detectives find a pattern and follow one of the victims’ wives, who paid China to get rid of her abusive husband. Carrera also finds a gardening tool from the place Ramon was last seen, which makes the investigators consider the Jurados their primary suspects.
China becomes aware of a detective snooping around her clients and warns Elmer, who has started acting exceedingly erratic after getting in touch with his emotional self and seeing things in a new light. Upon learning about Elmer’s diagnosis of tumor growth in his brain, China wants him to undergo the surgery, but even with the possibility of the benign tumor turning out to be life-threatening, Elmer is unwilling to undergo the procedure. He fears that the tumor is the only thing that can allow him a chance to feel emotions and cherish the love he shares with Violeta, and he is prepared to sacrifice his life just to keep feeling this way. With Sabela threatening to expose their contract killing business, China finds herself under a lot of pressure as Elmer gradually becomes confident and assertive. On one occasion, she herself tries to kill Violeta, whom she considers the main obstacle, but finds out that she doesn’t have what it takes to take a life.
However, Elmer and Violeta’s romance hit a rough patch when she starts avoiding him to cope with her guilt over her crimes, and Elmer once again returns to his mother for solace after seeing Violeta hooking up with someone else. Later, as Violeta arranges a meet, a bitter Elmer decides to take her down for good, only to reconcile with her after listening to Violeta confess her actions and profess her feelings for him. Seeing Elmer repeatedly getting himself emotionally entangled with Violeta, China berates him, mentioning how his sloppiness is going to result in them getting imprisoned, as Sabela is threatening to expose them to the authorities. This results in a heated argument between the mother-son duo, which ends with Elmer leaving the nursery after calling out the control freak nature of his mother. Realizing that she can’t expect Elmer’s help any longer, Violeta contacts Orson, a contract killer, to get the job done, i.e., removing Violeta once and for all.
Who Is Elmer’s Next Target?
Elmer starts living with Violeta, and upon realizing that he is being tailed by the detective duo as a possible suspect, he decides to pay a visit to Sabela’s mansion. Catuxa was critical of Violeta’s choice of partners and considered Elmer to be problematic as well, which is why, seeing him lurking around Sabela’s house, she sends a voicemail to Violeta. Sneaking into Sabela’s mansion, Elmer tries to convince her to leave Violeta alone, only for her to try to escape to reach the authorities. Elmer engages in a struggle with Sabela and ends up murdering her. Staging the incident as a burglary, he takes Sabela’s jewelry to his mother—to finally fulfill her dreams of getting their ancestral house back and distance himself from her toxic presence.
Catuxa’s voicemail and the news of Sabela’s murder make it quite clear to Violeta that she has chosen a troubled partner again, and she decides to leave her apartment, warning Elmer that she will inform the authorities about his actions. Orson tracks down Violeta, and knocking her unconscious, takes her to the seclusion of the wilderness to murder her, only to get hilariously outsmarted and murdered by her. Having taken a life, Violeta considers herself to be at the same level as Elmer and informs him about her predicament. From China’s call to Orson’s phone, she also gets to know that it was Elmer’s mother who ordered the hit on her. Elmer meets with Violeta, and while helping to cover up her crime, confesses everything.
On the other hand, the investigation by Torres and Carrera doesn’t amount to anything due to Carrera’s sloppy mistake of trying to find evidence at China’s nursery. Witnessing the detective snooping around her nursery late at night, China had dug up all the bodies in her nursery the next day with Orson’s help and disposed of them way before the authorities arrived at her doorstep with a search warrant. The detective duo get chastised by their senior for wasting resources on a dubious investigation. Also, Elmer helps Violeta to cover up her crime by staging a road accident scenario with Orson’s corpse and planting evidence to make it seem like the hitman was Sabela’s killer. Which means even the possibility of investigating Elmer on the suspicion of Sabela’s murder is gone.
Violeta takes her leave of Elmer as she decides to leave the town to free herself from her demons, and before leaving, she informs him that China had sent Orson after her. Elmer confronts his mother, lambasting her for her manipulative, vile actions. But instead of being able to free himself, Elmer finds himself shackled by her once again as China knocks him unconscious and takes him to the hospital to have his tumor removed. Following his surgery, Elmer loses his ability to feel emotion once again, though retaining all the memories, he seems to harbor nothing but resentment against his mother as they go back to their old way of life, minus the killing, I guess.
As the series ends, Violeta is revealed to have returned to town, and approaching Elmer in his nursery, she requests him to eliminate someone for her. Although Elmer’s question about the identity of the said person remains unanswered, I think it is safe to say that she is asking Elmer to take down his own mother, La China Jurado, given the past history between them. Given how Elmer holds a grudge against China, whether or not he turns against her in the future remains to be seen.
What Happens In The Mid-Credits Scene?
From the mid-credits scene of The Gardener, it appears that Torres and Carrera’s investigation is not quite over yet, as one by one, all the corpses China disposed of from her garden float to the seashore—and the investigator duo are seen present at the scene. This hints that if a season two gets made, and that’s a big ‘if’ in this case, then Carrera and Torres will probably be able to bring the killers to justice.
