Investigative thrillers attract all sorts of eyeballs. We had “Broadchurch” and “Mare of Easttown,” highly engaging investigation thrillers that kept the audience on the edge of their seats. “The Snow Girl” is a Spanish-language thriller that tells the tale of Amaya Martin, who disappeared from a parade happening in Malaga. Will she be found? Who are the kidnappers? These are some of the questions which will be answered as the story jumps between 2010 and 2016. After a six-year period in 2016 after which a special circumstance led to the case being reopened. A Netflix Original, the six-episodic show dives deep into how a case such as this one snowballs into something bigger, and many truths come out in the open for people to comprehend.
Spoilers Ahead
The Disappearance Of Amaya Martin
Ana and Alvaro pick up their daughter from school so that they can attend the Cavalcade of Magi, an event celebrated every year. It attracts plenty of crowds from the city and the neighboring town. It’s a sight to behold for everyone, especially for kids, for there is no dearth of fun activities and merriment during the parade. Ana is a doctor by profession, and Alvaro is an illustrator who is excited to show their five-year-old daughter Amaya the parade, which is something most kids of her age always look forward to. The general atmosphere at the grand parade is of joy, laughter, fun, colors, and families having a good time. Later, it begins to rain, but that doesn’t change the festive mood, and people are not bothered by the downpour. Alvaro and Amaya go to purchase some balloons, and this is when things go wrong. Alvaro lets go of Amaya’s hand only for a second when Amaya is distracted by a toy, and within seconds she is nowhere to be seen. Alvaro and Ana look for Amaya desperately everywhere, but the rain and the crowd disrupt their search and their strength. They are devastated beyond words, for they soon believe their only daughter has been kidnapped. By whom? No one knows. Ana and Alvaro cannot fathom the fact that their daughter is gone, and all they can do is let the police take over and help them find her and the culprit. This has become a piece of national news. The police and the media are at it to find out who the culprit is. Miren is a journalism student who is interning with local daily volunteers to help her mentor with covering this case, who works as a senior journalist with the same paper and is Miren’s college lecturer. It is easy to conclude that Eduardo favors Miren because of their long-standing friendship, and Eduardo is the only person who is aware of the kind of trauma Miren has been through. She experiences flashes of an assault of a sexual nature that she had suffered. Since the traumatic experience, Miren has not been entirely alright and tries to bury the pain and concentrate on her studies and work.
‘The Snow Girl’ Episode 1: Ending Explained – Is Amaya Martin Alive?
Miren is strangely attracted to this kidnapping case and wonders if she can add any value as a journalism intern. Eduardo is ready to take her along on the ride, but their boss is not keen on keeping her around, for she is just an intern. Eduardo informs her of a jacket that was found in a building around which the parade was going on, and soon this will be revealed at the police press meet. Miren comes to know that Belen Millan is the chief investigative officer. Miren has had a bad history with Belen, which is not revealed right now; but it can be assumed that it has to do with Miren’s assault case. Miren believes Biren will probably not be able to crack this case, and that’s the only strong motivation that leads to Miren obsessing over wanting to know the truth. Miren, in the hunt for more answers, helps Amaya’s family and friends to stick posters all around the town. While taking advantage of the situation, she pursues Ana and requests her to speak to her. Miren who would normally take advantage of the situation Amaya’s parents are in because she just needs to dig deep into this matter so that she can have more information than Belen. Since Miren herself has been through traumatic experiences, she wonders if the 5-year-old Amaya was also subjected to sexual assault.
Miren empathizes with Ana and Alvaro and the awful ordeal they are going through. On the same day, Miren has a word with Amaya’s friend’s mother, Rosa Luque, who slowly opens up with Miren about the situation at hand. Rosa’s husband David is a small-time business owner who runs a removal company. He confronts Miren and accuses her of harassing his and Amaya’s family. David has an overly hyper reaction to Miren being involved in the findings of the case. David makes sure she stays away from the families, and he files a complaint against Miren to their editor-in-chief. She concludes that Amaya was probably kidnapped by someone she knew, and that’s why she was ready to walk along with the said person, as shown in the CCTV footage gathered by the investigation team. Belen, on the other hand, is looking for all possibilities that would help her find a lead, which would include questioning the balloon seller as well, who has a past criminal record. Belen, at this point, has not been able to crack the case as the cross-questioning and investigation are still on the way. Miren’s trauma comes across as something worse than what has been projected for the assault and keeps haunting her day and night; the memory of it is aggravated since her involvement in Amaya’s kidnapping case. Sadly, Miren is doing this to curb her own feeling of despair; she is not speaking to her mother and consistently avoiding going to therapy.
Six years of Amaya’s Disappearance
In the year 2010, Ana and Alvaro hold a vigil for Amaya and request the people of the town to help them find her. Their only hope is if someone tips the police off about a sighting of her, but the rest is up to the national police to investigate and make sure Amaya is brought back alive. It is 2016, Miren is now a full-time journalist with the same daily for which she interned. It is not indicated if she is still fixated on Amaya’s case. On a routine workday, Miren receives a package from an unknown person who states the video needs to be delivered to Ana and Alvaro. Incidentally, the day Miren received the package, it was Amaya’s 12th birthday. Ana, to date, remains distressed about losing her only daughter. She is asked to come by a police station, where she is met with Belen, her ex-husband Alvaro, and Miren, who are at the same place waiting for Ana to show up. Miren and Belen inform the former couple that she received a package that specifically asked her to deliver it to Amaya’s parents. The package contained a VHS tape, which was home CCTV footage of a 12-year-old girl playing in her room with a doll house. Ana and Alvaro figure out the girl in the footage is their daughter Amaya. They are shocked to see her alive—a piece of news they never thought they would receive. The entire team standing in the room is shell-shocked to finally find a breakthrough in the form of a video being delivered. The video and package could be investigated further.
What To Expect From Episode 2 Of ‘The Snow Girl’?
“The Snow Girl” Episode 2 will be about the package containing the VHS tape of Amaya that was delivered to Miren and the investigation around it. It is finally a lead they have received for the first time in six years. Belen hopes to crack the case, at least this time, and not let Ana and Alvaro down. Miren will also be interested in following up on the case, and she will start where she left off.
Final Thoughts
The first episode of any investigation thriller should be able to do something very basic. Create a proper setup, point out the victim, and point out the possible suspects. If these basic elements are placed in the screenplay in the right way and executed the same way, you have a good start. “The Snow Girl” has a good start, thankfully, and the writers Jesús Mesas Silva and Javier Andrés Roig do a good job of giving us a murky set up that will remind at least the Hindi cinema-watching audience of “Ugly,” the Anurag Kashyap film about a young girl getting kidnapped. The situation is dark; there is no hope left, and the trust in the police keeps fluctuating. All of this and more has been captured well in “The Snow Girl” Episode 1, which would want the viewers to continue watching the show to know who happened to the kid and who exactly is the culprit. Is it someone she completely did not expect or was she kidnapped by one of the usual suspects? The setup did a good job of making the audience sit on the edge of their seats. A good start.
