The Woman Who Knew Too Much
An out-of-control Veronica begins Good Morning Veronica with an impassioned plea to those watching on her phone. “In order to protect the ones we love, we must make the difficult decisions.” As she starts sobbing, we cut back 24 hours earlier. Carvana finds Vero snooping around her office and questions what she’s doing. Only, Verro is the one asking questions now and she talks to him about her Father’s death hit and just what happened in the past. It turns out her Father was part of this entire operation but he wanted to speak up and reveal the truth. Carvana ended up involved thanks to a series of favours but he claims to just be a small fish. Gritting her teeth, Veronica demands to know who the bosses are. Getting nowhere, she instead drops her badge and gun on the table. This isn’t a good idea though and as Carvana tells her, the police force is her only shield right now. Instead, he gives her an unregistered gun wrapped in a cloth and tells her to go somewhere safe and lay low. That evening, Veronica facetimes her family and tells Paulo what happened, including handing in her badge at the station. Sobbing, Vero tells her family she loves them very much and packs her suitcase. Meanwhile, Claudio buries his wife up at the ranch before heading back to the house. He collects up all of Janete’s clothes and belongings, stuffing them in a bag. However, he hesitates when he notices the crossword puzzles and a series of numbers. Ringing through, he gets Carvana’s number at homicide and immediately hangs up. Veronica makes her decision and heads over to Janete’s house. Turning off the electrics and with her gun in hand, she sneaks inside and finds the house completely abandoned and stripped bare. All of Janete’s belongings are gone. Some of the crossword puzzles are still there though and as Vero looks through the pages, she realizes this links back to the location of the ranch. Before she can continue though, Nelson rings and reveals that Carvana has gone missing. As we’ve seen from an earlier scene, he was tasered and carried away by Claudio. Vero uses the clues in the crossword puzzle to try and suss out where Claudio’s ranch is. It seems to work too and she finds the car abandoned and the boot wide open. Grabbing the taser from the front seat, she sneaks round the corner and finds Claudio digging a grave. A blood-stained Carvanalies motionless on the ground. Unblinking, Vero points the gun at Claudio’s chest and fires. Only, he turns the gun on Carvana and fires. Vero is forced to watch this man die before her eyes. Overcome with grief, Veronica tries to compose herself while hunting for a wounded Claudio through the woods. This hunt inevitably brings her to the bunker, where she finds Claudio lying in wait. He pounces on her but she tasers him and leaves the man in a heap on the ground. Putting the box over his head, she burns him alive after seeing what he did to Janete. On the back of this, Veronica heads off to speak to Chief Carlos. She organizes a meeting in private to discuss what’s been happening at the station. Nelson rings while she’s en-route though and reveals that she’s the main suspect in Carvana’s death. It turns out the Chief is working with Anita too, leaving Veronica with yet another roadblock to tackle. With nowhere else to turn, Vero leaves the message for herself on the bridge and turns the gun on herself and fires. We then cut forward 2 months. The police find the ranch and 15 dead bodies outside. Only 9 have been recognized thus far and Vero is presumed dead. As we soon see, she’s actually still alive but adopting Janete’s identity and hiding out at Prata’s apartment. Determined to continue hiding from her family, she’s instead going to take down this “mafia” infesting Brazil. She’s not going to the press though and instead decides to do things her way. As we cut across to a choking Gregorio in a restaurant, it appears her way is poisoning and killing people.
The Episode Review
Oh dear, this show completely went off the rails at the end. Turning full Jason Bourne on us, Good Morning Veronica is another example of a show abandoning what made it so good to begin with in order to chase thrills. When this Brazilian crime drama leaned into the abuse and the issues gripping young women, it was at its strongest. The cat and mouse game was good with Claudio and there were genuine stakes in the form of Janete’s life, family and wellbeing to keep things tense. Now that Janete is dead and Vero’s killed Claudio, there’s just not enough intrigue with the corrupt police angle to carry this show forward. We’ve seen this angle a million times before and there’s just not enough to have this stand out next to other crime dramas. A second season will almost certainly see this turn into an espionage thriller which is a bit of a shame. That’s to say nothing of Veronica either, who turns from a straight cop at the beginning to a full-on killer at the end. Her moral compass and desire to do right by the law and these girls is partly what made her such an empathetic character. Now, we’re seeing her poisoning people and satisfyingly watching people burn; it loses what made her so compelling despite this serving as a commentary about corruption. If a second season is green-lit, I hope this show returns to what made it so appealing. With Vero on the run and a more thriller-esque story on the horizon though, this one is in danger of falling into action-driven mediocrity.
