The Ending Of The Silence Of Water Season 2 Explained
"The Silence of Water" Season 2 is an Italian murder mystery show following another police investigation led by inspectors Luisa Ferrari (Ambra Angiolini) and Andrea Baldini (Giorgio Pasotti). Castel Marciano, a quaint seaside village near Trieste, Italy and the Slovenian border, has experienced yet another tragedy following the events of Season 1 — the double murder of a mother, Sara Liverani (Margherita Laterza), and her teenage son, Luca Liverani (Pietro Belloni).
The investigation in Season 2 uncovers criminal activities, buried secrets, and deep-seated resentments that have been festering for years. Like Season 1 of the series, the investigation in the second season reveals the dark underbelly of an idyllic town, as well as deadly secrets within the Liverani family, their friends, and extended family. The last episode uses misdirection and imagined scenarios to mislead the audience before finally revealing who the killer is and the shocking reason they killed Sara and Luca.
Although the crime at the heart of the season is ultimately solved and the killer confesses, in the last moments of the season, Elio Moras (Stefano Pesce) shoots Andrea in his backyard as Roberta (Camilla Filippi) and Matteo (Riccardo Maria Manera) watch in horror. This shocking turn of events leaves us with plenty of unanswered questions, so please read on as we delve into the ending of "The Silence of Water" Season 2.
What you need to remember about the plot of The Silence of Water Season 2
Season 2 of "The Silence of Water" begins with Inspector Luisa Ferrari finding a little girl alone on a road in the middle of the night. After the child is identified as Giulia Liverani (Jessica Claudia Paun), Inspector Andrea Baldini and Luisa go to Giulia's home, where they discover the double murder of Giulia's mother, Sara, and her teenage brother Luca. After they discover the crime scene, the investigation begins in earnest under the assumption it was a robbery gone wrong.
Rocco (Giulio Corso), Sara's estranged husband, is the first suspect despite his father Salvatore (Alessandro Cremona) giving him an alibi. Davide (Gabriele Falsetta), a man recovering from addiction, becomes a suspect because he has a criminal record and was recorded on CCTV footage following Sara on the day of her murder. While inspecting the crime scene, Luisa concludes that Sara knew her killer because she opened the door for them.
Suspicion also falls on Sergio (Andrea Gherpelli), owner of the boxing gym where Davide and Rocco work, after his smuggling operation is uncovered. Katja (Silvia Degrandi), Sara's former employer at the Riviera, is cast with suspicion because of her affair with Rocco. It's obvious that Silvia (Barbara Chichiarelli) and Umberto (Stefano Alessandroni), Sara's sister and brother-in-law, are hiding something. Elio, Matteo's biological father, arrives in town and wants to connect with him. However, Elio's involvement in Sergio's smuggling ring raises suspicions about his connection to the double murder.
What happens at the end of The Silence of Water Season 2?
After Don Carlo (Fausto Maria Sciarappa) shows Davide's disturbing drawings that closely resemble the crime scene photos to Luisa and Andrea, Davide reluctantly confesses to robbing Sara's house after returning from dinner to find that she and Luca had been murdered. Because Davide was afraid of getting arrested for robbery, he didn't fully cooperate with the investigation and ended up looking guilty of a much more serious crime than theft. Thankfully, Davide didn't sell the stolen goods. After recovering them, Luisa tells Carlo she doubts Davide will serve a lengthy jail sentence.
In the last episode, Salvatore is given custody of Giulia after Rocco kidnaps her and tries to run away before being apprehended by the police at the scene of the crime. The police believe Rocco murdered Sara because, on the night of the murder, Giulia heard Sara tell Rocco that Giulia wasn't his daughter. When Luisa takes Giulia to Salvatore's house, she sees photographic evidence of his obsession with Giulia and her mother. Salvatore admits he has been in love with Sara since she was a teenager.
Salvatore's confession to killing Sara and Luca reveals, through flashbacks, that he sexually assaulted Sara and was Giulia's biological father. The tests run on Rocco to establish a motive also confirm Salvatore's paternity. Rocco's violent past makes people doubt him, but when he asks his father for an alibi, he unintentionally gives Salvatore, the actual murderer, an alibi as well.
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Silvia and Umberto are cleared, but Elio comes for revenge
The piece from the picture frame found at the crime scene casts suspicion on Silvia and Umberto, but it's revealed that, although Silvia stole Sara's inheritance from their mother and they fought about it (leading to Sara and her children moving into the house where they're murdered), Silvia was not involved in Sara and Luca's murders. To rectify her mistakes at the end of "The Silence of Water" Season 2, Silvia gives Rocco the money she stole from Sara to help provide for Giulia's future. He in turn tells Silvia that she can visit Giulia whenever she wants.
Elio is released from custody by Slovenian police because the steroids he smuggles with Sergio aren't illegal in Slovenia, but a forensics report determines that the gun recovered from Elio's storage facility killed Sergio. Sergio's keys, a voicemail from Elio to Sergio, and the gun all implicate Elio in the murder of his smuggling partner. Although Elio wasn't involved in Sara and Luca's murder, the investigation proves he is a killer and criminal after all.
Andrea changes his mind about moving to Trieste to work on the homicide unit with Luisa after Elio is released from police custody. The investigation helps him realize he belongs in Castel Marciano, where he can protect his community and family. Unfortunately, he isn't at peace for long. In the last minutes of Episode 8, Elio is spotted driving into Italy from Slovenia. Luisa rushes to warn Andrea, but she arrives too late. Elio confronts Andrea and shoots him, but not before Luisa shoots and kills Elio. At the end, Andrea appears to be dead as well, but it's not entirely clear.
The Silence of Water is about what it means to be a parent
Both seasons of "The Silence of Water" follow murder investigations, but the series also explores the trials of parenthood. "It is a story about maternity and paternity, about what it means to be or not to be parents," co-creator and writer Leonardo Valenti told TV Bizz Magazine. In both seasons of the Italian crime series, family is at the center of the drama.
In Season 1, Anna (Valentina D'Agostino,) grieves because she didn't protect her child, Laura (Caterina Biasiol), who was murdered while carrying a secret teen pregnancy. Andrea struggles to trust Matteo when he is falsely implicated in Laura's murder. Season 2 explores this theme through Rocco's questioned paternity. Although Rocco is proven innocent, he carries the weight of guilt because Luca stole the murder weapon from Rocco, and Rocco wasn't there to protect his family from the killer because of his estrangement.
Both Seasons depict the myriad of ways people attempt and fail to protect their children. Despite the dark themes this crime show explores, it ends on a quasi-happy note for Rocco, who's reunited with Giulia after being cleared of suspicion in the double murder of Sara and Luca. Rocco is afraid he isn't capable of doing right by Giulia after making so many mistakes with his deceased wife and son. Still, he accepts the responsibility of parenthood when Luisa tells him, "A child is a gift you cannot refuse."
The Silence of Water highlights gender-based violence against women
"The Silence of Water" Season 1 investigates the disappearance and death of a teenage girl who's pregnant by an older man she was seeing in secret. The story breaks from genre norms, revealing that Laura's murderer was in fact her best friend, Grazia (Sabrina Martina), rather than the father of her unborn child as one may have expected.
Season 2 of the crime series delves deeper into gender-based violence through the investigation. Although Luisa and Andrea consider Davide, Elio, and Sergio as suspects and believe that the double murder was linked to the smuggling operation, Luisa is inclined to believe Rocco killed his estranged wife and son. Anyone who watches crime procedurals knows the husband or boyfriend is often the guilty party.
"On another deeper and less visible level it is the story about the woman's position in our society, struggling every day with manliness," co-creator Leonardo Valenti told TV Bizz Magazine. According to data collected by the Ministry of the Interior, of the 113 women killed in Italy in 2020, 67 were killed by intimate partners, and other family members killed 32. This trend holds true in the United States as well, where women are more likely to be killed by an intimate partner or family member than by a stranger. This is reflected in how the investigation is carried out in the series, and with Salvatore's confession.
The filming location of The Silence of Water has its own haunting history
Although Castel Marciano is a fictitious town, the region where "The Silence of Water" was filmed has its own haunting history — a murder that took place at the ruins featured heavily in the landscape of Season 1. This legendary murder perfectly aligns with the crime drama's themes about familial violence against women.
According to the legend, a knight who once lived in the Castle of Duino killed his wife by throwing her into the sea when he heard rumors she had betrayed him. This folktale, local to the filming locations of Dunio, Sistiana, and Muggia in the province of Trieste, tells us that her ghost, known as the White Lady, still haunts the ruins of the castle by walking through its halls and rooms after midnight each night.
"The Silence of Water" was produced with the support of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission, which is instrumental in regional film and television productions east of the Alps. Hopefully, because of the international popularity of the series, more projects will be filmed in this beautiful location in the future.
What has the cast and crew of The Silence of Water said about the ending?
Unfortunately, with "The Silence of Water" being a foreign title, there aren't any English interviews available with the stars reflecting on how Season 2 ends. Ambra Angiolini, who plays Luisa, said in a 2019 Italian interview with Sorrisi that she couldn't imagine a sequel to Season 1, but of course, one happened anyway.
Neither of the show's creators has spoken specifically about the ending of Season 2 of "The Silence of Water," but Leonardo Valenti has credited some international television series as inspiration. "I was inspired more by the British series, where the drama has equal importance to the crime element," Valenti said, referencing shows like "Broadchurch," "Top of the Lake," and "The Killing."
After finishing writing Season 2 of the series, co-creators Valenti and Jean Ludwigg were inspired to tell what transpired during the one-year gap between the two seasons. These stories were adapted into a novel, "The Silence of Water: The Price to Pay," by Italian novelist Adriano Barone and were published by Mondadori in Italy. The novel is centered on Grazia's trial after her arrest and confession at the end of Season 1. Andrea and Luisa have opposing views about her fate in the novel.
What have fans said about the ending of The Silence of Water Season 2?
It's easy to become invested in the characters of "The Silence of Water." After Season 2 ended, some fans of the series took to social media to express their sorrow and outrage. A number of Italian viewers demanded Season 3, saying that it was owed after such a dramatic ending.
The fate of Andrea was particularly challenging for fans to grapple with. X (formerly Twitter) user @volanostelle simply posted, "ANDREAAAAAAAAAAAAAA..." followed by numerous broken heart emojis in response to the character's apparent death. Many other posts on the platform expressed similar levels of disbelief, with some fans even demanding that Mediaset give them more clarity on what happened.
Others were still tripped up on the revelation that Salvatore was Giulia's biological father. The shock of the dark twist was unsettling to many, and it's clear from fan reactions that viewers bonded with the characters and were surprised by the story's many turns. There was a resounding call for another season, with X user @Federlouis posting in Italian that he was "shocked" and needed a third season where Andrea was still alive.
What the end of The Silence of Water Season 2 could mean for the series
With Andrea likely dying from a gunshot wound at the end of Season 2 of "The Silence of Water," and the length of time since the season was released, it seems unlikely that the series will continue with a Season 3. Still, given that the international popularity of Season 1 helped lead to the production of a second season, you never know what might happen. With the novel providing more source material, this international thriller is primed for an English language adaptation, much like "The Bridge" and "The Killing."
Although we may never see another season of "The Silence of Water," we will see more international fare on streaming services in the future, and the language barrier doesn't seem to be a detriment to the growing popularity of foreign language content in the U.S. and the U.K. "I think there's a level of guilt about not speaking other languages," Italian producer Walter Iuzzolino told The Guardian in 2016. "Because of that, British television viewers are prepared to make an extra effort. They don't mind reading subtitles."