Directed by Jorge Torregrossa, Burning Body makes us privy to the messed-up life of Rosa Peral and how her choices ended up destroying not only her life but all those who had been closely associated with her. Rosa met Albert Lopez when she was still with Javier, and she didn’t even have an ounce of guilt about what she was doing. Albert also didn’t stop himself, and they both indulged in an adulterous relationship. They were bad at keeping it a secret, as the entire police department had come to know about it. Nobody could have ever imagined that Albert and Rosa were capable of going to such extreme ends.
Spoiler Alert
Was Albert obsessed with Rosa?
Rosa and Albert believed that they had actually made a foolproof plan to kill Pedro and that the law enforcement authorities wouldn’t be able to catch them, but it was not so. Their plan was far from perfect, and it didn’t take the prosecution a very long time to find out that both of them were lying. Albert and Rosa constantly met, even when the investigation was ongoing, and Rosa used to update him with all the developments so that they stayed on the same page. They stuck by the same narrative till the very end, but when they realized that if they did not implicate the other person, they would themselves go to jail, their entire stance changed, and it felt like they were enemies who were lurking to draw first blood.
Albert was a police officer, and he knew that by deciding to kill someone, he was not only putting his career at risk but his entire life. But he was so blinded by his own emotions at that time that all he could think about was how he could get Rosa back into his life. So, let’s try to understand why Albert took such a grave step and spoiled his entire life. Let’s try to decipher if Rosa was his one true love or if he had become so obsessive that he couldn’t get over her.
Albert was an extremely possessive person, and he felt really insecure and jealous whenever he saw Rosa getting close to another man. Rosa never considered him someone with whom she could start a family, at least not at the beginning of their affair. She liked spending time with Albert, but she treated him merely as a distraction, and the thought of leaving Javier hadn’t crossed her mind as of then. Albert wanted to be with her, but he knew that he was not in a position to ask her to leave Javier and settle with him. They used to go on patrol drives, and because of this, they ended up spending a lot of time together. Their bond grew even stronger when Rosa supported Albert during an inquiry against him. Albert and Rosa were on patrol duty when the former had an altercation with a man, and he ended up pushing him down the cliff. The man died on the spot, and Rosa was the sole witness who had seen it happen in front of her eyes. During the inquiry, Rosa was thoroughly grilled, but she didn’t open her mouth, and in the end, all charges against Albert were quashed.
Javier found out about Rosa and Albert’s affair, and he decided to end their relationship because he realized that Rosa could never change. At that time, Albert actually believed that Rosa would make her relationship with him official. Albert did have marriage on his mind, and he had thought that after living together for some time, he would propose to her. But surprisingly, all of a sudden, Pedros came into the picture, and Rosa ended up going with him. Albert could never understand why she had done that when things were going so well between them, but then, that was how Rosa was. She had done the same thing with Javier, and now Albert was on the receiving end. Maybe Rosa looked for a kind of stability in a man that Albert didn’t have, and probably on the spur of the moment, she ended up going with Pedro.
Albert became really frustrated and started losing his temper more often. Now, we don’t know if it was the fear of Albert or if she actually saw him as a person with whom she could settle happily, but Rosa did tell Albert time and again that she would always be with him. We don’t know if she was leading him on or not, but whatever she was doing, it worked. Albert stayed hooked on her, and probably around that time, they talked about killing Pedro so that they could be together. We can’t say for sure if it was Albert’s plan or Rosa’s, but both of them conspired to kill Pedro, as Rosa had had enough of him and was not able to deal with him anymore.
At the end of Burning Body, Albert arrived at Rosa’s house late in the night, and he killed Pedro in his sleep. Rosa had drugged Pedro earlier, because of which he had already been feeling drowsy, and eventually, he passed out. Albert had inquired with one of his colleagues about the safest method to kill someone without leaving any evidence, and that’s how he came to the conclusion that he would burn Pedro’s body.
Where is Albert Lopez now?
The irony was that the person for whom Albert had put his life at risk and for whom he had killed another man turned on him the moment she realized that if she didn’t implicate Albert, the court would find her guilty. Albert was a very complicated man, and he was solely responsible for making his life a mess. Not even once did his conscience get in the way of his actions, even when he knew that he would be terribly hurting Javier.
Rosa was not Albert’s love; she was his obsession, and he had reached a point where he didn’t care to what extent he would have to go as long as he got to stay with her. We do not exactly know what happened during that fateful night, but what we do know is that the lives of two people were ruined forever. All this could have been avoided if any one of them had some control over their impulses and thought a little about the consequences their actions were going to entail. Albert Lopez is now serving his 20-year sentence, and though we agree that the trial was botched, and the court took a departure from due process of law on many occasions, we cannot deny that Albert was guilty.
