Sintonia: Season 1, Episode 5 “Make Your Mark” – Recap, Review (with Spoilers)

As Nando and Doni see the dark side to their ambitions, Rita finds herself back in Leopoldo’s church.

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Network
Netflix
Director(s)		Kondzilla, Johnny Araujo
Writer(s)		Guilherme Quintella, Thays Berbe
Air Date		8/9/2019
Introduced This Episode
Caneta	Binho Silva
Glaucio	Anderson Canassa
Torto	Paulo Bronks
Miro	Ivan Capúa

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Sueli, Rita, Leopoldo | Forging My Own Path

Rita and Sueli have a row as Sueli once again finds Rita to be too much for her. This leads to her questioning the path Rita is on, especially whether it will mirror the path Rita’s parents took that led to her mom being excommunicated and dad ran off – for being a thief. Sueli saying that, as you can imagine, hits a nerve so Rita decides to live with Doni’s family and return to Leopoldo’s church. One which is welcoming, loving, and with thoughts of becoming a religious leader dancing in her head, Rita may show her ambitions isn’t about the money but about finding faith and guiding lost sheep.

Commentary

Of course, this all can only be done depending on what happens with the possible pregnancy. Mind you, I’m not saying Rita is pregnant but the condom did bust and she hasn’t talked about a Plan B bill or anything like this. Currently there is a SOL approach being taken and her waiting for the show to drop. Which seems weird to me but I’m from a completely different culture.

Question(s) Left Unanswered

1. With the way some talk this episode, is Rita’s dad alive somewhere?

Nando, Doni, Eder, Glaucio, Torto, Caneta | Sacrifices Have To Be Made

Nando’s murder of Juninho causes major waves. The higher ups, in particular, aren’t fond of him killing a brother, Glaucio specifically. Yet, with Bada supporting Nando, after a quick text to his wife to inform her Nando was about to be killed, he is safe. Maybe not completely, for Caneta and Torto too aren’t too happy the new kid took out someone more senior and they weren’t consulted, but Nanado gets to live – for now.

Someone else who has to deal with the more difficult parts of fame is Doni. Eder is booking him multiple performances a night and while the crowd is pumped, and some girl makes out with Doni, damn near has sex with him, he is exhausted. Yet, this is the dream, right?

Commentary

More than likely it is because Doni’s actor is 19 that his intimate scenes seem so uncomfortable. Because, as Chico says, Doni is a kid and that seems eternal. So to see some girl rushing the stage to make out, them in some small room together seemed so weird. Yet, they have to present that as his lifestyle right? The highs and what may lead to his downfall as a performing artist.

After all, Doni is the only one currently who we haven’t really seen look at anyone romantically or sexually thus far. He’s just hung around people and, lowkey, I was wondering if he was going to come out to us. If only due to the fact he is young, and an attractive young dude, yet was neither chasing girls nor really being chased. Instead, he tried to hang around Nando and his friend with the pool than Rita or other girls in the neighborhood. Though, who knows, Doni has some money so maybe he is picky and the local area doesn’t have girls which catch his eye?

Switching to Nando, the more we see of the mafia life, the more his story seems foreign to the others. For while I get the idea here is to show different parts of Brasil from the potential of legal upward mobility to illegal, there is a grittiness you see them trying to do with Nando that doesn’t line up with Doni and Rita’s story. Nando’s journey seems singular and perhaps due to him being dark skinned, they pair him up with two light skinned characters and maybe made him a Trojan Horse? It’s hard to say but, as of right now, Nando’s storyline is definitely the driving force.

Question(s) Left Unanswered

1. If Torto handles the drug production, what do the others do for the mafia family?

Nando, Doni, Chico, Rita, Lucrécia, Miro | In Too Deep

Thanks to one of the members of the family, not sure who, but more than one person, strangely, has their phone out when Bada talks, Nando is taken in by cops. This leads to Bada being extorted, with Nando as bait, and it becoming real serious for Nando. While he was already committed to this lifestyle, not he is being brought into the political side as it is made clear someone is trying to take Bada down. Who, is currently unknown. However, all that is made clear is Nando will report directly to Bada for now on and needs to prep for war.

As for Doni? Well, despite all those shows he did – he did not get paid. Which is going to be a problem for a few reasons: First, Miro, the man who financed his video, is starting to sound like a loan shark. One that will mess up the store to get his money. Secondly, Chico dies. Yeah, there isn’t an easy way to transition into that so we just ripped the bandaid off.

Now, as for why? Well, the way he speaks to Lucrecia, it seems Chico has heart issues that he doesn’t take care of since he doesn’t trust doctors. So even with Rita moving in to help, he still has some blood pressure related disease that causes him to die. Possibly a stroke since it sounded like he went blind before he passed.

Commentary

While I’m not against notable characters dying in the first season, with this show being 6 episodes, it feels like when someone dies, it isn’t a big thing. You barely knew them so this person or that person dying isn’t a huge loss to you. To the lives of characters they were family with, of course, but you? Well, no one on the show necessarily is someone who just latches onto you.

Yeah, Nando has the best storyline but that’s in comparison to Doni and Rita. In a general sense, it is good enough to continue, for as things go from bad to worse, there is something to latch to. Yet, there is a reason we’re almost two weeks from the premiere and we still haven’t finished this show.