Episode 7 of “Now And Then” Season 1 ended with Sullivan knocking out Belinda in his car outside Flora’s house. Sophia stole money from Marcos’ father’s house, while Pedro had lost the election. In Episode 8, the finale episode of Season 1, Flora looks further into the Jessica-Alejandro murder case after getting Belinda’s voice mail about new information. Pedro and Ana are on the verge of falling apart. Marcos and Sophia are about to escape to Colombia. But the most important part is played not by a person but by an object, i.e., tape no. 35.
‘Now And Then’ Season 1 Finale: Recap
Pedro is at his house having breakfast and listening to the news as it speaks about the newly re-elected mayor, Brady. After disconnecting a call from Ernesto, Pedro receives a voicemail from him where he states that, as he has lost, Ernesto will tell everything to the police just as he had warned Pedro (in Episode 7). Meanwhile, Marwen takes Ana to Brady, who gives her an offer to work for him after hearing lots about her from Marwen. Ana listens and leaves with a smile. Marwen is told by Brady to “make it happen.”
Marcos and Sophia are at his apartment, where they are about to leave for the airport. This is when Sophia shows Marcos the tape no. 35 that she recovered from his father’s safe. She hasn’t seen it. But the tape in possession of Marcos’s father points toward the possibility that his father is the one responsible for Daniela’s death. Marcos is in denial.
Flora gains consciousness in the hospital bed and is in a lot of pain after realizing her condition (the mastectomy). She checks her phone and listens to Belinda’s voicemail about the newly discovered information regarding the case. She tries to call her, but there is no answer. Neither does Belinda’s girlfriend, Sam, know anything about her. The last Sam heard from Belinda was the previous night. Flora leaves the hospital despite her doctor being against the decision. She calls Bunker, one of her assistants at the police department, and tells him to trace Belinda’s cell. The address they find is of Flora herself, where Belinda had been the previous night. After that, her phone was turned off.
Pedro hasn’t been talking to Ana, and it is bugging her. They end up having a domestic argument that ends with Ana telling him how she sacrificed her life for Pedro, but “for what?” Pedro replies that if she isn’t happy with her life, she can change it. At that point, Ana reveals that Brady has offered her a job at his office. “Are you going to accept it?” asks Pedro. A deafening silence follows. After some time, Sophia and Marcos arrive at their place and show them the tape. All four of them watch the content of the tape and are transported back to the events of that fateful night. Marcos remembers his fight with Alejandro. Ana remembers how she added drugs to their drinks. Pedro thinks about how she killed Jessica Thompson while trying to snatch her phone. The accident is there on the tape. It also shows them changing Alejandro’s position in the car to make it seem as if he was driving it. They know that this tape is the last piece of evidence directly related to the case, so they destroy it.
Flora arrives at her neighbor’s house and asks her if she saw her partner Belinda the previous night. She says she didn’t, but she did see Sullivan. After coming home, Flora calls Sullivan and asks him about the previous night. Sullivan answers that he had come to give her dinner, but she wasn’t there. He didn’t see Belinda either. Flora reminds herself of what Belinda told her about some new information and decides to visit the police archives. There she finds the fingerprint report that Belinda made copies of. As soon as she sees it, she is taken back to the day (the initial days of the investigation, almost 20 years ago) when Sullivan told him that the extra set of fingerprints that she found in Jessica Thompson’s car was that of another paramedic and not of any of the suspects. It ultimately led to the case being closed until now, 20 years later.
Sophia and Marcos return to his apartment. Marcos tells Sophia to take the money and deposit it in the bank while he goes to talk to his father. Marcos arrives at his father’s house, who has by now realized that it was his son who tricked him and Sophia who stole the money. But Marcos confronts him and tells him that he cannot tell the police about the money unless he also wants them to find out about a piece of evidence he kept hidden that is connected to a murder. Marcos is angry and leaves the place, telling his father that he is going to do something that he should have done a long time ago (leave for Colombia).
Back at the Cruz’s, the news on the TV reveals that Brady has received allegations regarding misleading and false statements, which, if proven right, can effectively disqualify him from the position of mayor. This means Pedro has the chance to be the mayor-elect.
Sophia is about to cross the road and enter the bank when a black car halts right in front of her. It is Bernie’s men. They take her to a parking lot where Bernie is waiting for her. He takes the money she had on her, but it is “not all there.” So he gives her a phone and tells her to wait for his call about her next job, which she will have to do to clear her debt.
Despite being suspended from duty, Flora returns to the department and accesses the security camera feeds from the night when all the tapes from Daniela’s home were brought and kept in storage. She sees the feed of the camera in front of the door of the evidence storage room. And what she sees brings an expression of disbelief to her face. She then checks someone’s bank accounts in shock and prints them. She is, however, noticed by Lieutenant Willis, who wants her out of the department premises immediately. She abuses him in front of everyone and leaves.
Pedro is leaving for the office without Ana, something she finds new. He seems to have started making decisions without telling her, something which for him makes sense since she has already accepted an offer from his opponent, Brady. Pedro clearly states that they were never a team. Ana loved Alejandro, someone Pedro could never become. And neither does he want to anymore. It is true that after Alejandro’s death, Ana and Pedro grew up together, but it was all based on a lie. He apologizes to her, wishes her luck, and leaves for the office.
Marcos meets Sophia at the airport, but he realizes that something is up with her. Upon asking, Sophia tells him everything about her involvement in the blackmail alongside Daniela, her stealing from Bernie, and that the whole point of stealing his father’s dirty money was so that she could repay Bernie as soon as possible. A heartbroken and pained Marcos says that he doesn’t want to see her ever again and walks off. Tears roll down Sophia’s eyes as she stands there alone in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the airport.
‘Now And Then’ Season 1: Ending, Explained – Who Stole Tape No. 35? Who Was Daniela’s Murderer?
It is nighttime when Sullivan enters his house and finds Flora waiting for him. When she starts talking about the fingerprints, Sullivan pretends to not understand what she means and goes inside to fetch a glass of water for her, only to get hold of his gun. But, to his bad luck, Flora had already taken it and had it on her. She points it at him and slowly begins to reveal how he lied to her all these years. It was he who lied to her about the extra fingerprints being of a paramedic and not of Marcos Herrera. It was he who stole tape no. 35 from the storage (this is what she saw in the CCTV footage). And it was him who killed Daniela. And his bank accounts reveal that he had received huge sums of money regularly. An utterly regretful Sullivan reveals that he was offered money by Marcos’s father, which would allow him to pay for his wife’s treatment and let him spend more time with his ailing wife, even though she survived only a year more. So the reason Sullivan killed Daniela is the same reason he stole the tape as well as killed Belinda. He did everything to keep the truth from coming out. In an effort to snatch the gun from Belinda, he hits her in the chest. Belinda falls, writhing in pain. Blood starts appearing on her shirt. This is when Sullivan realizes that Flora has had her surgery. He calls the ambulance, and as soon as it arrives outside, he flees using the back door. We see no more of him.
At the end of “Now And Then,” episode 8, Pedro announces that he will continue to fight to become the next mayor of Miami-Dade. Meanwhile, Ana announces her candidacy for Governor of Florida. Marcos leaves for Colombia all by himself, in tears. Pedro visits Ernesto’s apartment, where he lets him in. Sophia gives Bruno a sum of money that his mother wanted him to have and leaves Miami-Dade. Belinda’s body is recovered, and Marcos’s father is arrested for hiding evidence of the murder (Flora must have made the fingerprint public). Two years pass after this night. Flora, who has apparently been reinstated to her former rank, is called to the morgue to identify a dead body. A gasp comes out of her as she looks at the face.
The Outcome
Clearly, the only other person equally associated with the Alejandro-Jessica murder case from the beginning, who was not among the primary suspects, along with Flora, was Sullivan. And frankly speaking, he was just another victim of desperation, which is often what makes people do what’s not expected of them. Sullivan removed all the possible evidence so that there was no way to trace it back to Marcos Herrera. He even killed two people. However, he didn’t kill Flora, who, he certainly knew, was someone who wasn’t going to stop till she found the truth, something she learned from him, as she reveals at the end. This implies that Sullivan has a deep soft spot for Flora. After all, they have been partners as well as friends for more than 20 years. But the question is, where did Sullivan go after fleeing from his house? We do not know. With him being the murderer, Flora must be looking for him too. Season 2 will continue her pursuit.
With Marcos’s father being arrested, it is only a matter of time before he is arrested too and brought back from Colombia. This would mean that he will be interrogated, which might as well mean that he will speak about all that happened on the night of Alejandro’s death. So, Sophia, Ana, and Pedro will again be called for by the police. As for Sophia, she was always on her own, and she still is, working for Bernie after doing her bit for her best friend’s son, and losing her love in the process.
Keeping in mind how it was Pedro who kept his mouth shut about Ana adding the drug to their drinks that led to Alejandro’s death, their relationship was more like a pact or a deal, one that was based on a lie, as Pedro tells her in this episode. What’s overwhelming is that both loved Alejandro and have been together since his death. However, the ending of “Now And Then” Episode 8 reveals that they have parted ways and will be competing against each other for the mayor elections. We do not know what will happen to the children and who will keep them. Perhaps it will be another pact, but one that will be easier to deal with.
Ernesto had told Pedro that if he lost, he would tell the truth to the police. If he had, Pedro would have been behind bars by now. But that doesn’t happen. So why didn’t he do it? Did he stop himself from doing so after finding out that Brady had received grave allegations, which would give Pedro a chance to serve as the mayor? Or did he not do it because he loved Pedro too much for it? Either way, it is Ernesto who saves Pedro, who rightfully returns to him.
In “Now And Then,” Episode 8, Flora finds out about the new information Belinda has regarding Jessica Thompson’s murder. However, keeping in mind that the second page of the copy Belinda made of the fingerprint analysis was missing, as she showed Sullivan in front of Flora’s house (in episode 7) the night Sullivan killed her, it is only natural that the original copy that Flora comes across after she goes to the archival section of the police department (in this episode) would also have its second page missing. So the question is, how did Flora find out that the extra set of fingerprints belonged to Marcos Herrera? Did she find the missing page? This seems to be the only viable explanation. Or else, it is a loophole.
Finally, we come to the last scene of the season finale, i.e., the dead body. Flora’s gasp, in all probability, suggests that it is of someone related to the case that we all thought had finally come to a close. But it hasn’t. Whose body is it? Is it Sullivan’s? Or is it Marcos’s father’s? Or is it Sophia’s? It cannot be either Pedro’s or Ana’s because, given that both are candidates for election, their death would create quite a stir. So Sophia wouldn’t have been taken aback the way she was. It cannot be Marcos either because he should already be in jail as two years have passed since the fingerprints were made public. But all these are mere speculations. For the truth, we must wait for “Now and Then” Season 2.
