Block Party
The Season 1 finale of Spectros begins with Zeca awakening in his van to find Carla there. They sit together, talking, until he leans forward and they kiss…only this is all a big dream and he actually awakens to find the doll gone. With Leo nowhere to be found, Pardal heads off alone to try and find his brother. As he does, the mysterious stranger arrives and talks to the rest of the group about the name of the town – it means freedom. With Celso gone, Carla despairs about her powers while the Necromancer grows in his. As Carla hears whispering in her head, she manages to fight it off for now as she, Mila and Zeca head out and find the popcorn vendor missing and popcorn spewed across the ground. Pardal meanwhile, finds himself cornered by Li and his henchman, the former with a shuriken wedged in his forehead. As we skip back, we see them both killed by the Chinese Mafia Boss and confronting Pardal. He fights them, managing to spray-paint on the familiar Spectros symbol and watching as the ghoul bursts into flames. The Necromancer meanwhile switches bodies again, this time from the male cop into his son. Our antagonist begins to summon the coming apocalypse and rallies the ghosts to his call as they all begin to descend on the town, turned into crazed, undead zombies. Mila saves Pardal from his fate, pinning a picture of the symbol on Li’s back and watching as he bursts into flames. This allows them all to breathe a sigh of relief. Only, the Necromancer’s spell causes the dead to rise again and as the group scramble away, Zeca finds himself trapped in the van, made worse by one of the ghouls throwing a spear and impaling him to his seat. Teary-eyed, Carla speaks to him and tells her to trust Leo before dying. With the ghosts all around, Mila and the others ward them off using a picture of the symbol before Celso arrives and tells them he can bide them some time to escape. As he does, the group hurry through the Cemetery of Sorrow, the area from the opening episode, and make their way into the Church, where our mysterious stranger happens to be standing. He issues a warning to them before disappearing, presenting the Necromancer awaiting their arrival. While the Necromancer speaks to the kids about life in old Brazil, conjuring ghosts to hold them up at knife-point, Mila paints symbols over her body and steals the doll away, with Pardal and Carla both killed in the process. Mila suddenly awakens to find herself buried alive. It turns out all of this was a big illusion. Surrounded, the ghosts in the graveyard await their new master, with Zenobia returning and coming face to face with the Necromancer who promises to kill them all. After being antagonized by Pardal and Carla, Mila smashes the doll and releases the ashes – which in turn possesses her. She warns them against messing with her or her friends and Mila speaks to all of the ghosts and tells them it’s up to them to decide what they want to do. As the trio rush away from the graveyard, they make their way back into town after having saved the world, but find Celso dead on a bench, having given his life to bide them time from the ghostly onslaught. In the aftermath of this, the news begin writing up articles about the graveyard while the trio sit together at dinner and discuss what happened. As the series ends, the spiritual entity from the beginning of the show tells us she’s now ready to have some fun as she bursts into a flurry of letters and disappears. With most of the big plot points resolved at the end and a suitable finale that saw genuine stakes for our characters, Spectros does a reasonably good job keeping things interesting. Zeca and Celso both meeting untimely fates is a bit of a surprise, but certainly raises the dramatic tension, while the showdown in the church does well to keep things exciting right the way through to the end. While the show itself pales in comparison to other supernatural series out there, Spectros is a fun, enjoyable ride despite its flaws. The resolute ending is a nice touch too, and a rarity for Netflix series these days, especially given this series really doesn’t need a second season.
