There are good stories, and then there are those whose potential remains untapped because someone was more focused on the format than the idea. Had The Surrogacy been shorter and sharper, it would have done way better with the audience. The first 14 episodes should have just been 2-3 episodes, and the rest of the story should have taken up the bulk of the narrative instead of it being the other way around. We are also not fond of the medical theories being thrown around, Robin Cook style, for a soapy and dramatic effect. The plot about Julia’s breastfeeding felt especially cruel. Either way, here is a recap of everything that went down in this 24-episode series.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happened With The Surrogacy Of Yeni?
The absolute start of the story lies with the clinical trials of Huizar Pharmaceuticals, whose villainous owner and dim-witted son are the cause of most of the grief in the series The Surrogacy. The company was testing some pills that promised to treat postpartum depression, but instead, there was a terrible side effect where the kids were born with some or the other physical deformity. Nobody bothered to explain why postpartum depression pills were being taken for fertility issues but when Carlos and Julia are struggling to have a child and are taking fertility treatments, Julia takes one of the company’s pills on the insistence of her sister-in-law, when it was still being tested. They later came to know that Fernanda, who had offered to be a surrogate for Julia and Carlos, had purposefully miscarried their child so that her son would be the only heir to Huizar. She had done this at the insistence of her husband, Arturo, who wanted to take control of Huizar in the future, but Nora would never allow that. She may find him useful in the course of things, but classism was so inbred in her that she could never respect Arturo’s ambition or abilities. As for Fernanda, she had always had to compete with her brother, Carlos, for their mother’s validation due to her patriarchal mindset. Over the years, Carlos had come out of the competition, but Fernanda was still fighting. Fernanda was right when she said that she had to do it since she did not have the security of her brother, and the fact that Carlos is an entitled brat also adds to it.
Yeni and Carlos decide to go for a surrogate, even though it is illegal in Mexico. They chose an indigenous woman named Yeni. Yeni is forced to agree to be the surrogate to get her father out of jail, where he is being held captive after shooting a man who had ambushed their car and tried to kidnap Yeni. What Yeni comes to know later is that the men who tried to kidnap her were sent by Julia, and it was a set-up to coerce Yeni to do their bidding. Mubu had shot a man (Balo) in the leg and injured his brother more severely. However, it is much later on that we realize that Mubu was not the one to kill the brother. The people who had set up Balo ordered the doctor treating his leg to botch it up so that he would have a limp throughout his life, and as for the brother, he needed to be dead. All of this was done so that Yeni and Mubu would be forced into a corner and would have to listen to everything they said.
Yeni agrees to be the surrogate for Carlos and Julia’s child, and their last embryo is implanted in her. This would have been the end of it, but Nora had to interfere again. She had never liked Julia and always wanted her out of the picture, and what better way to do that than to ensure that Yeni lost the embryo, which would mean that any and every hope of Julia becoming a mother would be obliterated? It is such a backward way of thinking and makes us wonder: if there is even an ounce of reality in such stories, has the world progressed at all from the Dark Ages?
She tells Marcela, the doctor in charge, to induce abortion in Yeni with the help of a pill. Marcela acts accordingly because she wants to leave Huizar Corporation, and this surrogacy is her last job with the organization. But there is a twist unknown to them all. The embryo had divided, and the abortion had affected only one of the two. When the doctor told Carlos that Yeni had an abortion, he believed that they had lost their children. That is why he did one of the stupidest things possible and had an affair with Yeni, so that she would get pregnant again and he could take the child as his and Julia’s. Yeni had no idea about the abortion or even Carlos’ intentions behind the start of the affair. But the problem was that Yeni was one of the rare cases who could get pregnant again while still being in that condition. Yeni ends up carrying twins, and one of them was Julia’s while the other was hers. Of course, all of this was discovered later on, after the delivery. Over the course of the nine months, Carlos and Yeni end up falling in love, though Carlos is adamant that his priority is Julia. When Yeni delivers the children, the girl, Tessa, is born perfectly healthy, while the boy, whom Yeni names Luciano, is born with clubfoot. Nora, in her typical bigoted self, decides that he is unworthy of being a child of the Huizar family and tells Julia and Carlos that the boy was stillborn while Tessa is the only healthy one. Yeni is quite literally left out on a park bench with her son. Yeni’s struggles in The Surrogacy start at this point.
Her father, Mubu, is killed by Balo, who was out to avenge the death of his brother and his own injured leg. However, a new person enters the scene here. Balo pushes Mubu in front of a car that was being driven by Lucia, a pregnant woman. The hit kills Mubu, and Lucia ends up in the hospital. She delivers the baby but is in a coma. She had told her husband that if she ever landed in that state, she wanted him to pull the plug on her. Francisco honors her wishes, though that turns his in-laws against him for a while. At the end of the day, Francisco wants to do the right thing and tries to contact Yeni to give her the insurance money for the death of her father. But by this time, Yeni has discovered that her father and she might have been set up, and she knows that Balo had a hand in killing Mubu. That is why she refuses to take Francisco’s money, in the interest of being fair. Regardless, Yeni and Francisco come together as a family, along with Cuca and Sonia. Yeni wants nothing to do with Carlos since she considers him responsible for the clinical trials and thinks that he is the one who abandoned his son. As for Julia, she knows the complete truth about the children and agrees to take care of Tessa while letting Yeni be the mother of Luciano. Julia knows that Nora would kill Tessa if she knew the truth. This is Julia’s way of protecting both the children from the Huizar cruelty and helping her become a mother, which is what she wants more than anything else.
But things are even more complicated. Nora had the lawyer, Irene, killed to cover the tracks of the surrogacy. Andres Ochoa, a man who was protesting against Huizar Pharmaceuticals, is framed for her death and sent to prison. Nora also gets rid of Balo by making him out to be the hitman who was acting on Andres’ orders. Unfortunately, Andres’ wife, Beatriz, loses her child in an case of police brutality. Carlos constantly talks about wanting to make things right, but he does nothing, simply because it is the easier route for him. He could have taken a stronger stand, but he is hell-bent on playing both Yeni and Julia while doing right by neither. He could also take a firm stand against his mother, but he definitely doesn’t want to lose his inheritance. Everything Carlos does is merely lip service with a very weak image of being the good guy, but he is fooling no one. Eventually, through an unrelenting game of cat and mouse, Carlos discovers the truth about the children and, upon understanding Julia’s motivations for keeping quiet about it, joins her half-heartedly.
3–4 years later, Yeni is bringing up Luciano as best she can, and everyone else has started shaking off the tragedy to find their own path going forward. Huizar Pharmaceuticals is in hot water with the women affected by their trials, who are protesting against them. In another twist, it is brought to light that the women were advised to wait a year to get pregnant after the trials. But that clause was left out by Irene, on the insistence of Fernanda and Arturo, so that they could show down Carlos, who was the one in charge of these trials. But now that everything’s out in the open and Nora admits to the mistake made with the trials, Arturo takes a rather foolish step that has Nora seething. He has Ochoa hanged in the prison right before he was to be released, and the building with the women’s support group was blown up. Everyone believes that Yeni was in the building, but she was saved by Balo at the last minute. The complete truth of Huizar’s manipulations is out in front of Yeni and she knows that she will have to spend the rest of her days in hiding. Balo and his mother are leaving the city to go someplace, and they give their house to Yeni, which was bought with the money they got from Cuca and Sonia’s laundromat. This is their way of making up for their part in the sordid affair. As for Carlos, Julia and Nora, they believe that Yeni and Luciano died in the fire.
How Does Nora Pay For Her Actions?
Years later, when all the kids have become teenagers, Tessa is a little spoiled, whereas Nico (Fernanda’s son) is the more conscientious one. Then there is Luciano, who participates in the Voladores ceremony so that his mother can be proud of him. Luciano thinks that Yeni is embarrassed of him since she always wants them to stay in hiding. But Yeni is bound by the truth, and the lifestyle is taking a toll on them. It is during this time that a video of Luciano and Yeni at the ceremony goes viral, and Carlos and Julia come to know that they are alive. They track them both down, even while Luciano himself is looking for them. When Nora meets him, she is thrilled since she sees the likely heir of Huizar in front of her eyes. She had previously decided that it would be Tessa, but seeing Luciano as a strong, determined individual changes her perspective of him. Luciao also meets Tessa and Carlos and tells them that he just wants to live peacefully with Yeni. Though the two are not against it, they make sure to tell their son that they love him and have always wanted him in their lives. This confrontation is also when some more truths come to light. Carlos and Julia discover that Arturo was the one who blew up the building with the women’s group, and Yeni comes to know the truth about her daughter, though she doesn’t believe it yet. However, when she sees Tessa in person, she feels that motherly tug that tells her otherwise.
Additionally, the DNA results that Marcela and Roberto have given Francisco also prove the truth. But the worst thing amidst all this might be Tessa’s racist reaction to learning the truth from her parents. All the children are slowly discovering the truth about their parents’ horrific pasts, but things take a turn for the real when Nora discovers that Tessa is Yeni’s daughter and Luciano is the one who has Huizar blood. She is actively trying to bring Luciano back into her life, but she wants Tessa to leave. Therefore, she makes a plan that ends up costing her everything.
When Tessa meets Yeni in the park and they are being taken back by Nestor, they are ambushed and about to be killed, but Nico gets in the way and ends up being shot. With this single mistake, Nora ends up losing the support of Fernanda, Tessa, and everyone around her. But she is unfazed, as she decides to make Luciano her heir on the condition that he gives her heirs. But Nora really has a close-minded view of the world, and when Luciano tells her that he is gay, she crumbles and goes into shock at none of her plans having worked and her having lost everything. However, since she is in a vegetative state, her final will can be perceived as per the laws of common sense and justice. As long as Julia and Carlos recognize Luciano as their son, the company will pass it on to him when he comes of age. Until then, Huizar Pharmaceuticals will be Yeni’s since she is his legal guardian. Carlos and the rest will continue managing it. As for Nora herself, nobody knows what to do with her since she did not express her wishes for her care.
At the end of The Surrogacy, Luciano tells Nora that he wants Tessa to run the company while he pursues his dream of playing soccer. With the main villain of the story out of the way, everyone’s lives are resolved, and Yeni and Carlos start seeing each other again. But we are probably happiest for Julia, who finds her own happy ending with Keyus.
Final Thoughts: Will There Be A Season 2 Of ‘The Surrogacy’?
We pray that it doesn’t happen. One season of The Surrogacy was long and convoluted enough. Also, there are no loose ends left. That becomes an impossibility when all the villains die and the victims end up rich and happy. This series was an unnecessarily long journey, and most of it was just about misunderstandings getting cleared up. There was very little progress in the story except for the passing of time. Regardless, this is the end; it was good in parts, and we have experienced some “Deja Vu” from a decade ago of watching 24 episodes of something in one go.
