Yahoo News ‘Griselda’ Ending: Wait, Did That Phone Sex Scandal Really Happen?
[Editor’s Note: This story contains spoilers for the ending of “Griselda.”]
In a series full of twists and turns, the final moments of Netflix’s six-part miniseries “Griselda” still pack a punch.
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Realizing the jig is up, Griselda (Sofia Vergara) calls the cops on herself from a motel before an enraged Rafa (Camilo Jiménez) can assassinate her. Then, in a bid to enhance his own separate deal with the police, her hitman Rivi (name in real life: Jorge Ayala) sells her out. But it turns out Rivi has one more trick up his sleeve: After making a deal with prosecutors that he would testify Griselda ordered him to commit the various murders, the case fell apart due to a phone sex technicality … which is somehow a part of the tale not enhanced for TV.
Take it away, Associated Press: “Two secretaries in the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office have been suspended without pay over allegations they had phone sex with a confessed cocaine ring hitman and cashed money orders he sent them. Prosecutors fear the women’s relationship with federal prisoner Jorge Ayala could jeopardize next month’s triple murder trial of Griselda ‘The Godmother’ Blanco. Ayala is a witness in the case and the secretaries had access to prosecutors’ files.”
It sure did jeopardize the case!
Unlike many adaptations based on real people, the “Griselda” team — which includes co-creators Eric Newman, Doug Miro, Ingrid Escajeda, and Carlo Bernardas — did not adapt a specific book in telling Griselda Blanco’s story. “We talked to a lot of people in both local and federal law enforcement as well as 1980s era cartel lawyers and people in that area work — most of whom were only willing to talk to us off the record. We also spoke with the real June Hawkins and Al Singleton, who were invaluable sources,” Newman noted to IndieWire, calling out the detectives portrayed in the series.
For those who were already familiar with the legend of The Godmother, the fact that the Netflix show ends with the death of her children and not her actual end by way of a drive-by assassination in 2012 in Medellín might have been surprising, but it was all part of the themes the show wanted to focus on.
“This is a tragedy, and we chose the period of her life that began with her greatest hopes and aspirations and ended with her greatest loss, which was the loss of her children; the very thing she set out to protect,” Newman said via email. “That’s what separates her from all the other male narcos of the era. The death of her children was her true ending. Her death years later was almost an afterthought.”
“Griselda” is streaming now on Netflix.
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