End of the Line was fun in a way the audience wouldn’t have expected. With its innovative use of the fourth wall and a tone of parody that stops just short of venturing into that category, this series is the first in a long time to put a genuinely inventive twist on something rather generic. With that out of the way, the following is a recap and ending of End of the Line.
Spoiler Alert
Why are Ivan and Sandra separated?
Ivan and Sandra have been married for twenty years and separated for a huge chunk of that, simply because they don’t see eye to eye on how to live a responsible life. Ivan often gets into trouble because of his general irresponsibility and lack of accountability for anything, whereas Sandra tries her best to live according to a plan. For the most part, Ivan gets by because he seems to have good luck on his side, but that has to have worn away with time. Currently, Sandra, Ivan, and their son, Ivandro, live in the same house because their finances don’t allow them to go their separate ways, but there is always some conflict, usually of Ivan’s doing.
In the first episode, Ivan and Sandra are at loggerheads because of their jobs. Ivan is a van driver without a permit, and his business is cutting into Sandra’s business, who is a bus driver and is on the verge of getting fired because of the profits being stolen by people like Ivan. Therefore, Sandra ends up reporting him but has to rethink her actions when her son finds employment in the line and is likely to be arrested. The couple and the rest of the group get through it when they figure out that Sandra’s boss is also running some illegal motorbike businesses on the side and that getting revealed would ruin him. Therefore, they make him say on television that he has no problems with the vans, and he also helps them get a license going forward.
The next two episodes revolve around Ivan continuously testing Sandra’s patience. To get his radiator fixed, he gives away her air conditioner in a raffle, and Sandra loses her temper because that was supposed to be the one thing she was looking forward to after a strenuous day. In the next episode, Ivan accidentally destroys Sandra’s new bag and also ends up ruining her 10-year work anniversary. At this point, Sandra has had it with him, and she decides to sell the house, getting rid of their arrangement once and for all. Sandra wants their divorce to be final so that they can stop getting involved this way in each other’s lives.
How do Ivan and Sandra deal with the new developments?
Ivan and Sandra’s system has always been a comedy of errors, with Ivan promising to set things right but succeeding only halfway and making things worse for himself most of the time. Ivan tried everything to sabotage Sandra’s sale of the house. He gets the password for the app she is using and keeps deleting messages from potential buyers. When one of them comes to see the house, he convinces them that the house is haunted and in disrepair. But Ivan doesn’t know that if Sandra cannot sell the house, she will sell his van. The moment he learns about this, he brings back the customers, which proves to be more difficult than he could have imagined.
Ivan and Sandra’s situation is financially toxic. Ivan says that Sandra ruined his credit score, but all she did was buy the air conditioner and refrigerator, which Ivan ended up losing because of his own stupidity. As for Sandra, her credit score was fine, which is why the van and house were in her name, and she exercised such final authority over them. Now that the sale of the house is finalized, Ivan has to find a new place to stay. Meanwhile, he loses his parking spot due to a construction project undertaken by the city hall. As usual, Ivan is overconfident that he can find a shortcut to solve the issue, but it only ends up ruining a lot of things, and there is chaos and fixing, which leads to more chaos. Maybe that problem was never resolved, but it is clear that Ivan cannot be trusted. He even forgot Ivandro’s birthday, and though he manages to scrape together the decorations as he was supposed to, he mixes them up with some explicit pictures of himself that he had to send to his girlfriend. Ivan makes up for the disaster by praising his son and assuring people of his sincerity, though he may have spoken too soon because Ivandro was clearly bad at his delivery job.
Do Ivan and Sandra end up together?
Ivan’s girlfriend broke up with him after the photo disaster at Ivandro’s party. As for Sandra, she is dating Robson, who is smitten with her and is clearly the opposite of Ivan, but Sandra secretly finds him irritating. While Ivan is completely homeless, Sandra has found a place to stay, but that goes for a toss when it is announced that the employees of the company are about to lose their jobs. The owner sold the company to someone else, and it is unclear whether the next owner would retain the employees. During this time, Ivandro announces that he is engaged and that his girlfriend’s father is the new owner. Ivandro has been lying to his girlfriend that he is rich and he wants to get married because that is the only way he can live with her, which is necessary considering how his family doesn’t have a place to stay anymore. Since Ivan and Sandra also need a place to stay, they agree to take part in the farce.
For a very brief moment, it seems possible that they can get away with it all, but as usual, Ivan has made a mess. He did not pay the property tax on their house for a few years, believing that the forms would simply expire. But that has just accrued up to a huge debt that the new owners would never pay, and this could potentially cancel the sale of the house.
When Ivan and Sandra are meeting Ivandro’s in-laws, the new owners of their house come there to confront them about the unpaid property tax. Sandra had no idea about this, and looking at how ridiculous the situation is, she tells the girl the truth about Ivandro. Surprisingly, she is not offended or feeling betrayed, saying that she had guessed this long ago and just liked him for his humility. Even the girl’s parents don’t mind this because they themselves got together because of the father’s lies. We feel sorry for this family.
During End of the Line‘s ending, Sandra and Ivan just have to sign the papers to be divorced. Ivan imagines that Sandra wants to continue the marriage, but that dream is shattered right away. Regardless, Ivan makes Sandra listen to the song that was played during the wedding, and that melts her immediately, sparking a reconciliation. Rodrigo Sant’anna (Ivan) truly breaks the fourth wall here and admits that it is not realistic, but he has written this ending because that is what he wanted to happen. Therefore, Ivan and Sandra are together, but if it were real life, they wouldn’t be.
Final Thoughts
End of the Line is purely entertaining, though it would have benefited from toning down the chaos. In so many ways, the limited runtime worked in its favor, though more could have been done for the character’s development, which we may see in season 2 if there is one.
