We are once again taken back to the intense and action-filled ER and operating rooms at the Joaquin Sorolla public hospital in Valencia in Netflix’s hospital drama series Breathless, which has returned with its 2nd season. Having left us on a cliffhanger the last time, the series picks up from that very tense moment, after Dr. Jesica Donoso had been horribly stabbed by a patient who had turned violent. Along with dealing with complications from the past, Breathless season 2 brings in new problems as well, particularly with the introduction of superstar oncologist Sophie Lafont, who is even subjected to a police investigation by the end.
Spoiler Alert
What is Season 2 about?
Breathless season 2 begins with Jesica Donoso being rushed to the operating room right after getting stabbed violently by one of her patients, with the entire workforce at Joaquin Sorolla shocked and jumping in to help the beloved doctor in whatever way possible. Around the same time, one of the doctors at the gynecology department, May, is in tears, for she cannot find her daughter, Africa, in the ward after the baby had been brought in to receive treatment. Turns out, May’s partner, Rocio, with whom she had been going through a rough patch in recent times, had only taken Africa out for a walk, and May’s concern can be put to rest. Amidst all this, the hospital authorities receive an even more shocking piece of news, as the government has just announced Joaquin Sorolla Hospital is to be run by private management from now on, meaning that the long-standing public hospital is no longer going to be the same.
With all the doctors, nurses, and workers confused about how things will pan out from now on, a new character is introduced in the form of the new manager, Nicolas, who assures everyone that there is not going to be an overhaul of personnel at the place. Although everyone gets to keep their jobs, including the old head of administration, Lluis Bonet, there are definitely a number of changes introduced at the hospital that only become apparent later on. For now, the person seemingly most affected by the privatization is Patricia Segura, the president of the Valencian government, who had been receiving treatment for cancer at the hospital under the guidance of the head of oncology, Dr. Nestor Moa.
It is she and her government that have made this decision, and she has personally appointed Nicolas as the new manager, and so the latter now pays back the favor by bringing in a celebrity oncologist named Dr. Sophie Lafont, who is known all over Europe for her exceptional work in the field. As Nicolas has Sophie join the hospital and build a new modern facility, she takes over the treatment of Patricia, eventually making her a part of the experimental and highly confidential trial that she is running based on her latest research. While Patricia is ecstatic that she might finally be able to bring her cancer under control, Nestor has his doubts over Sophie’s experiments, and he sets out to investigate her work, especially through the intern, Biel de Felipe, who is chosen to be an assistant in the trial.
Why is Lluis Bonet under internal investigation?
The first major development in Breathless season 2 is with regards to Jesica’s health, which gets even worse when she develops further complications, which makes her delirious and drives her to carve out the stitches on her stomach, exposing her wounds terribly. As a result, her liver is irreparably damaged, meaning that only an emergency liver transplant can save her. Although everyone at the hospital is desperate to help their friend and colleague, they cannot go against the regulations with regard to organ transplants, and so Jesica is placed on the waitlist, meaning that she will have to wait her turn for the transplant. Among everyone else, Lluis and Biel are the ones most desperate to help Jesica, since they both love her dearly, and they both are ready to bend the rules in order to help her get a new liver.
When a young woman enters a comatose state with no chance of her recovering, Biel wants to check if her liver will be compatible with Jesica, even though her parents do not give the hospital the permission to run such checks just yet. Biel literally sneaks into her cabin and collects her blood samples, which is enough to get both him and Lluis into trouble, but his heroics are of no use as she is not a match. Some time later, Lluis gets a call from the respective authorities about a healthy liver being ready for transplant, but there is yet another obstacle in Jesica’s way when a patient in the same condition as her, of the same age and desperation as her, is ruled to have more of a chance of surviving with the new liver. As per the rules, a patient with higher chances of survival is to be given the organ first.
But the time that would be required to find another organ and then get it transplanted into Jesica would make things extremely difficult for her, with the chance that she might even die in the process. Besides, the chance of the other patient’s survival is only slightly higher than Jesica’s, and so Lluis takes the matter into his own hands and tells the authorities that they had sent in an inaccurate report for Jesica. Since her condition is deteriorating, a fresher test run on her clearly suggests that she is in more need of the organ, and Lluis sends in this new report, which is a highly illegal act, since he is technically forging the timing of the test. Although this move does save Jesica’s life, as she is successfully transplanted with a new liver, Lluis gets caught, because of which he is subjected to an internal investigation and removed from the position of manager, with Dr. Pilar Amaro now given the position by Nicolas.
Can Oscar’s ailment be cured?
Back in Breathless season 1, Pilar Amaro’s son, Oscar, had been revealed to have been struggling with drug addiction, and he had finally agreed to receive treatment for the same. Now, in season 2, Oscar comes to the hospital on a regular basis for his treatment and is supported by Pilar, who is no longer angry or frustrated with her son like before. But Oscar’s situation is found to be more complicated when the hospital psychiatrist, Dr. Neus, diagnoses him with bipolar disorder, because of which he had gotten addicted to drugs so easily. Oscar starts taking lithium for his disorder, which also has an unexpected complication, as he loses consciousness and almost dies on one occasion.
Therefore, upon the advice of Neus, Oscar agrees to receive a modern form of shock therapy, which is considered to be a far more effective method to keep bipolar disorder in check than taking lithium pills. Although Pilar initially does not consent for her son to receive this treatment, as it sounds too barbaric and primitive to her, she does eventually realize that it would be the best way to help her son. Thus, Oscar does start receiving shock therapy in the latter half of the series, and there is clear improvement in his health. Things take a turn when Pilar herself gets infected by a bacterial breakout at the hospital, but she also recovers in a short time. But her deteriorating relations with Nicolas momentarily pose a threat to Oscar’s health, as the latter threatens to stop offering shock therapy treatment at the hospital.
This is because Pilar had been growing concerned about Nicolas’ management style, particularly his move to put a cap on the emergency room, which meant that if there were too many patients at the ER already, then newer patients would be taken to other hospitals instead of being brought to Joaquin Sorolla, which could turn out to be fatal for some of the patients. To make matters even worse, Nicolas had also signed a new deal with a private pharmaceutical company who had promised to fund an expansion, but on the terms that only their medication be used in the ER. Since Pilar had started speaking out against these potentially dangerous practices, Nicolas now threatens to stop her son’s treatment, but ultimately nothing of this sort takes place. Oscar continues receiving treatment and is evidently on the path to being cured, or at least, his disorder is in check.
Who does Jesica ultimately choose to be with?
Matters of romance continue to be an important part of Breathless season 2, with Jesica having to deal with a whirlwind of emotions in her personal life. At first, she is genuinely impressed and won over by Lluis’ efforts, both big and small, to help her out and ease her pains in whatever way possible, because of which she chooses to be with him after her recovery, telling Biel that their ‘casual’ fling is now over. She goes through a difficult time returning to work a few months later, as she suffers from PTSD from the stabbing incident that had almost killed her. In this while, Jesica is also made the new head of the surgery department, as Pilar was promoted to the position of the manager, with Lluis having been removed from the position.
But when Pilar and Nicolas have a falling out, the latter chooses to remove Pilar and bring back Lluis as the manager, which quickly has a negative effect on Jesica’s relationship. Pilar now forcibly takes back the position of the head of surgery from her, and when Jesica expresses her frustrations in front of Lluis, the latter ends up snootily reminding her how his illegal step had helped save her life in the first place. As a result, Jesica ultimately chooses to break off their relationship, even though they had gotten engaged, and at the end of Breathless season 2, she leaves her engagement ring at Lluis’ office, making it clear that she no longer wants to be with him. Jesica is seen looking at her photographs with Biel now, clearly missing him and yearning to be with him again, but this seems impossible at the moment, since Biel is getting romantically involved with the new ER doctor, Lucia Haro, who happens to be an old friend of Jesica as well.
Do Rocio and May stay together?
Like everyone else at the hospital, Rocio and May also go through a roller-coaster ride with regard to their relationship, which had indeed started in the first season. Rocio, the head of the ER, and May, a doctor in the gynecology department, had gotten romantically involved and had moved in together as well. But their romance had to go through a series of troubles, even though they had initially decided to raise May’s baby, Africa, together. In season 2, they start off on a cold note, as May felt that Rocio had forcibly tried to take her baby away from the hospital after she had decided to break up with her and leave Spain to move to Germany. Eventually, the two get back to being friends, and Rocio asks May to move back to her apartment, not as lovers but at least as roommates. May agrees and makes this move, along with baby Africa, and eventually, she once again gets romantically involved with Rocio.
However, things once again fall apart at the very end of the season, when the head nurse, Blanca, reveals to May that Rocio had indeed tried to walk away with baby Africa on the night that she had gone missing, trying to take advantage of the loss of power at the hospital, but must have decided otherwise. While Blanca had always been a good friend to Rocio, supporting her in whatever way possible, and even covering for her pill addiction, Rocio had sold Blanca out during an internal hearing, in which she blamed the nurse for pulling a risky move. This led to Blanca being angry at Rocio and, more importantly, to her refusing to cover for Rocio anymore, because of which she tells the truth to May.
Although no confrontation between May and Rocio takes place by the end of Breathless season 2, it is almost certain that the former will want to break up with Rocio and get as far away from her as possible. It is likely that May will indeed move to Germany now, as it will be extremely hard for Rocio to defend herself anymore, especially now that her professional and personal lives seem to be falling apart in multiple ways.
Is Quique able to be with his new romantic interest?
Although Quique had grown romantically close to Oscar in the previous season, he makes it clear to the youngster that there can’t be anything between them, as Oscar should focus more on his treatment and they should remain just friends instead. After some time, Quique starts falling for a new doctor at the hospital, Jon. They are clearly both attracted to each other and end up sharing a kiss inside the hospital as well, only for Quique to be bothered by the revelation that Jon was once married and has a young daughter as well. After Jon insists that he is not simply fooling around, and this ex-wife knows about his current romantic pursuits as well, Quique goes ahead with the relationship, and he spends a few nights at Jon’s place as well.
However, this is when things go horribly wrong for Quique, despite him having hoped that he would be able to be together with his new romantic interest. Although he had stopped doing drugs, he somehow still had a few ecstasy pills in the pocket of his jeans, which he ended up wearing to Jon’s house. At a time when neither of the men was at the place, Jon’s daughter, about 7 or 8 years old, found the pills and took them out of curiosity, leading to her becoming tremendously sick and having to be rushed to the ER. When this becomes clear to Jon, he refuses to listen to Quique at all and cuts all ties with him, meaning that Quique ends up alone at the end of Breathless season 2.
Who had tipped off Sophie Lafont?
Dr. Sophie Lafont remains a highly mysterious character throughout Breathless season 2 because of the extreme confidentiality around her work and also the high reach in the government that she has. Sophie is so secretive about her recent research and the clinical trials that she does not even upload her findings on the hospital computer, either because she is scared of the data being stolen or because she genuinely has something to hide. When Patricia Segura ends up being harsh and mean to her on one occasion, she swiftly receives a call from her party president, warning her to not mess with Sophie Lafont, which means that she has extremely high up connections in the government. There are more suspicious matters about her as well, like how she has changed her workplace numerous times in the past, never working at the same hospital for long, and how most of her patients have passed away. It is for this very reason that Nestor Moa decides to investigate Sophie, as he believes that she is definitely up to some shady business.
But the truth of the matter is that no significant evidence is ever found against Sophie, and the fact that most of her patients die can be easily seen as a normal occurrence, since they were all cancer patients with severe complications. Towards the end of the series, when Nestor realizes that Sophie is no longer uploading any data even to her work computer and has been stashing everything in her personal hard drive, he orchestrates a thrilling mission with the help of Biel and Pilar. It is Pilar who triggers the alarm at the hospital, making everyone rush out of the place, while Biel secretly siphons data from Sophie’s hard drive.
Even from this data, though, it is seen that Sophie had only been exaggerating the efficiency of her innovative treatment by a negligible margin. It is evident to Biel and Nestor that such an insignificant discrepancy in the reports cannot be used to file an official complaint with the medical authorities, but Pilar, who is desperate to get the celebrity oncologist fired from Joaquin Sorolla, directly takes the data to the police and files a case against her. As a result, the police come to the hospital to gather evidence against Sophie the next day, but by this time, the oncologist has already left the country and has even taken all the data and material with regard to her trials with her.
Although it does appear like someone had tipped off Sophie and had helped her hide her tracks or keep her prized medical data confidential, it is very likely that she herself had understood that someone was trying to sabotage her and had acted by herself. Nestor had never kept his suspicions against Sophie a secret, and she might have figured out that Biel was trying to get hold of information against her. If we are to consider other possibilities, then it also seems likely that the President of the Valencian government, Patricia Segura herself, might have tipped Sophie off, despite it meaning that she would not receive her last dose of cancer treatment.
Patricia is always extremely driven and determined to help her party and her political career in any way possible. Had something significant against Sophie Lafont been found by the police, it would have been immediately used by her political rivals to argue that the privatization of public hospitals is wrong and harmful to society. Therefore, it is possible that Patricia had averted such a situation by making a pact with Sophie and helping her get away. After all, Patricia Segura knows how to turn situations in her favor and win elections without anyone expecting her to, as she does at the end of Breathless season 2.
What happens to Nicolas in the end?
The new manager placed at Joaquin Sorolla as a representative of the private management, Nicolas, happens to be the biological father of Biel de Felipe. However, Biel absolutely hates his father for having abandoned him and his mother when he was diagnosed with cancer as a young boy, and Nicolas now admits that he had abandoned the family because of his inability to deal with the fear of what might happen to Biel. Over the course of the season, the father and son’s relationship does get slightly better, especially towards the end, but there is a massive twist in the end. After realizing that Sophie has managed to remove all the data from her lab, Biel believes that Nicolas must have tipped her off, and he angrily calls the man to confront him. Nicolas keeps stating that he had had nothing to do with this development, and he even agrees to drive to the hospital to have a face-to-face talk. However, in the heat of the moment, Nicolas seems to drive into oncoming traffic, and his car is smashed by a truck, leaving him either dead or terribly injured. If Nicolas does survive the accident, it is possible that Biel and he will reconcile their old bond, although it is probably more likely that he will die, further complicating the situation. If Breathless ever returns for a 3rd season, then it will be interesting to watch what happens to Nicolas and whether anything more can be learned about Sophie Lafont.
