‘Public Disorder’ Recap & Ending Explained: What Happened To Mazinga?

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After watching the first season of Netflix’s Public Disorder, a series that focuses on the systematic abuse of power by authoritative forces, one might immediately be reminded of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, which gained prominence back in 2020, and consider that the narrative is inspired by the real-life horrors that strengthened the said movement. However, the series is actually an adaptation of journalist Carlo Bonini’s novel, ACAB: All Cops Are Bastards, published back in 2009, which chronicles the rampant instances of unrestricted violence meted out by Italian riot cops. The TV series, taking place a decade and a half since the publishing of the novel, shows how things really haven’t changed despite all the regulations imposed upon the authorities, as the ones who are assigned to serve justice will inevitably exercise their power upon the ones who lack it—until a complete restructuring of the existing rotting system is done. Revolving around the members of the unit of Roma riot cops, whose professional and interpersonal relationships get entangled as they cope with the aftermath of a dastardly incident of public beat-up, Public Disorder proves to be quite a riveting watch.

Spoilers Ahead


What Happened During the Val di Susa Incident?

The series begins with the Roma riot team facing a group of anti-TAV protestors in Val di Susa, who are vehemently protesting against the construction of the high-speed Turin-Lyon railway network. As the protestors grow increasingly violent and unstable, riot team leader Pietro Fura is hit with a bomb, which later on leaves him permanently paralyzed. As it turns out, this squad has no reservations about taking justice into their own hands, as Mazinga, the senior-most member of the team, calls for a charge, and the squad takes ‘revenge’ by beating one of the protestors so severely that he is left comatose. These morally compromised cops are partners in crime; almost all of them have a history of problematic behavior, and they cover up for each other time and again.as shown in the way that following the heinous incident, they remove evidence by bleaching their bloody batons. 

Two major developments follow after the Val di Susa incident: amidst huge public uproar, a full-fledged internal investigation is launched, with Turin’s DA prosecuting the team on suspicion of using extrajudicial violence, and Nobili, a straight arrow officer notorious for snitching on his unit in the past for their extrajudicial action, gets transferred to Rome and is assigned to lead the riot squad by replacing Pietro. The pressure of the investigation and the reality of their broken lives result in the unit members gradually spiraling down in a mental descent, causing them to question and eventually forcing them to change their perspective regarding justice. 


Nobili’s Moral Shift

In the beginning, Nobili’s presence in the riot squad is met with hostility as the majority of the unit members appear to be wary of him, given his reputation as a morally upright cop. During their first mission of mob control in a football match between West Ham and Roma, Nobili’s approach is met with disdain by his unit, who refuse to follow his orders, and a chaotic brawl erupts between the riot squad and the drunk fans. Amidst a chaotic situation, Marta, the only female member of the riot team, ends up getting injured. The entire unit blames their new leader in their report—everyone except Marta, who knows that Nobili’s approach was justified and refuses to sign their report. As a result, Nobili feels a bit ill at ease to connect with the only member of the unit who doesn’t despise him, and Marta gets isolated by her comrades for the time being. However, Nobili earns the trust of Mazinga and co. after successfully leading the charge on their second mission—rescuing a Moldovan family comprising a mother and her two children from a violent, racist Italian neighborhood. 

Nobili faces a harrowing crisis in his personal life, as his daughter, Emma, gets sexually assaulted in a nightclub by one of her friends, and the incident takes a heavy toll on her mental health as Emma becomes depressed and suicidal afterwards. Nobili tries to connect with his daughter only to realize that his daughter has become scarred for life. The fact that Emma and the rest of her friends are trying to normalize the incident in their own way implies that it will be impossible to prosecute the culprit. Realizing that the culprit is now enjoying a guiltless happy life while his family is falling apart, Nobili becomes increasingly jaded.In a vulnerable moment, he shares details about his situation with Marta. Later on, at some point in time, Marta ends up revealing details about the incident to Salvatore—the most neurotic, aggressive member of their unit, who also happens to be her close friend. Salvatore decides to approach Nobili to share his condolences. Nobili shows the picture of the culprit to Salvatore, who ends up capturing the teenager and lets  Nobili get his ‘revenge’. In his vengeful state of mind, Nobili beats the teenager up and leaves with Salvo before the duo end up doing something regrettably violent. . It can be said that Nobili has acclimatized himself to the twisted morality adopted by the members of the group, and there is no going back for him now. Mazinga, who was going through a personal journey of regret and repentance, had decided to hand the bodycam that recorded their heinous actions in the Val di Susa incident to Nobili. The footage could have been used to bring the team to justice and effectively mitigated the public uproar. However, given that Nobili has betrayed his own ideology, he decides to throw away the bodycam and cover up their crime instead; it would be hypocritical for him to hold his team accountable for the sort of crime he himself is guilty of committing. 


Marta Protects Her Daughter

Like the male members of her unit, Marta too was at ease with blindly following the diabolical old-school police routine of serving violent, extremist justice and covering up for others. She had occasional misgivings about the entire ordeal, but that wasn’t enough to bring about a complete change in her perspective. However, the Val di Susa incident had shaken her to the core as she had beaten up the teenager, resulting in his comatose condition. Having formerly suffered at the hands of a drunk abusive husband, being a single mother to her young daughter Agata, who desperately tried to protect her from the toxic influence of her father, Marta couldn’t help but feel pangs of guilt and remorse for her actions. Probably due to her own inability to confess her crimes, she allowed Agata to occasionally meet with her father, as Marta started to believe that her husband had reformed after he confessed about one of his past mistakes to his daughter—how he unmindfully left her locked in a car in a day-care center. However, abusers can never really get rid of their true nature, as Marta was able to recognize that her ex-husband subjected his present girlfriend, Giulia, to similar abuse, and she made her confess about the truth of the situation in front of Agata—to make her daughter aware of what kind of a monster her father really is. A remorseful Agata eventually confessed her sins to her daughter, although by the end it is not revealed whether she ends up owning up to her actions to the internal investigation team like she intended to. 


What Happens To Mazinga?

On the other hand, the most mentally unstable member of the team, Salvatore, realizes too late that he is being catfished by a woman, and upon finding out the truth about the situation, he decides to confront her and nearly kills her. Salvo changes his decision after realizing that her actions were motivated by her necessity to support her infant child. The woman seemingly had started growing feelings for Salvatore despite knowing his toxic tendencies, and the duo end up sleeping together. This bit is confusing in the context of the narrative as a whole, as on one occasion, Marta and Salvo almost ended up together by empathizing with each other’s loneliness, but that plot thread goes nowhere really.

The most shocking transformation takes place in the case of Mazinga, whose brutal, despicable attitude as a veteran cop had infected the rest of his unit members as well—and he was at the forefront of covering up the Val di Susa incident. Mazinga has ruined his personal life as well, as his estranged relationship with his son—who doesn’t even want to acknowledge him as his father—showcases aptly. However, following a series of events, Mazinga goes through a personal crisis—he falls for his now invalid team leader, Pietro’s wife, only to later realize that loyalty to his team matters to him much more than personal feelings. In fact, responsibility towards the force has taken away personal freedom  from Mazinga, and he has ended up being a despised, lonely man. Pietro’s paraplegic condition following the Val di Susa incident turns out to be a wake-up call for Mazinga, who has recently started to find a new meaning of life as Giancarlo, his son who is about to become a father himself, started to gradually reconcile with him. Mazinga finally had something to live for, and as a result, he suffered from a panic attack during one of the missions, as for the first time in a long while, the veteran cop had found the will to live. Mazinga decides to leave the force and take the blame for the Val di Susa incident upon himself to protect his unit—especially Marta, who needs to stay by her daughter Agata and protect her. 

Things obviously don’t go as planned, as on the 31st night patrol duty, the riot team faces a violent mob that is out for blood—following the death of the comatose teenager. Mazinga, Nobili, Marta, and Salvatore get beaten and somehow manage to escape to safety, but Mazinga collapses under extreme psychological pressure. The rest of the team tends to their fallen comrade, and ironically enough, fireworks of the new year erupt almost as if to mock Mazinga’s present predicament. A still-conscious Mazinga hears his son sharing the good news of becoming a father, and as the final episode comes to an end, it remains unclear whether Mazinga survived or not. If he survives, he will take the blame of the incident on his shoulders, but with Marta now willing to share the truth with internal affairs, it seems Mazinga probably won’t have to sacrifice himself to save his team. There is an off-chance that the entire unit grows conscience seeing their comrades ending up in a troubling situation, but that is a long shot, in my opinion.


Siddhartha Das
Siddhartha Das
An avid fan and voracious reader of comic book literature, Siddhartha thinks the ideals accentuated in the superhero genre should be taken as lessons in real life also. A sucker for everything horror and different art styles, Siddhartha likes to spend his time reading subjects. He's always eager to learn more about world fauna, history, geography, crime fiction, sports, and cultures. He also wishes to abolish human egocentrism, which can make the world a better place.


 

 

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