Feria: The Darkest Light is a new Spanish supernatural thriller series that is set in the titular town in the mid 1990s. It follows two sisters, Eva and Sofía who discover that their parents have committed a horrendous crime before disappearing. They have to face the consequences of their parents’ doing in a town where there seems to be an otherworldly secret that the inhabitants are hiding.
Summary
The story begins in the town of Feria in Andalusia. Two sisters, Eva and Sofia head to a village bonfire party for the teenagers of the town. As soon as they leave some suspicious visitors enter their house.
The next day they notice that their parents, Elena and Pablo are nowhere to be seen. Right then a group of armed policemen bust into their house to search it. The two sisters are clueless to what is happening and realize that something is wrong.
They are brought to the station, where an officer from outside Feria, Alvaro Guillen who is incharge of the case explains to them what has happened. Their parents are said to be responsible for a mass suicide of 23 people who were found at the entrance to the mine which was supposedly closed.
According to the surveillance video, Elena and Pablo accompanied the victims to the mine. Pablo would leave before entering and Elena followed them inside, then disappeared without a trace.
In the search of an old building adjacent to the mine, they find a teenage boy locked in a room. He says that Elena and Pablo were the leaders of some sort of a cult. From the police search, they find records of correspondence in Elena’s belongings. Some of these letters are from 10 years back.
The letters reveal the existence of the Cult of Light which has numerous followers. They believe that women are the key to opening a portal between this world which is created by a lesser God, and the Kingdom which is the true reality, where there is no pain, guilt, fear but not even love and passion.
Sandra, who is one of the officers positioned in Feria, enters the gallery of the mine where she is attacked by a creature. She gets extremely sick after that and ends up killing the father of the church. But she has no memory of why or how she did it. The people of the town look upon the sisters with suspicion and the police believe it is impossible that they did not know anything about this cult.
The followers of the Light try to convince Sofia, to take on her mother’s role and lift the five veils that leads to the Kingdom. Sofia does entertain the possibility that there is something they are missing and their parents cannot be murderers. However Eva is convinced that they were monsters who did something horrible and left both of them alone.
The local cop of the town, Marcos realizes that Pablo might be hiding in Serafin’s place who was a miner. He goes there and warns Pablo that he can’t carry on staying there. 20 years back something happened in this town and a lot of inhabitants seem to know about it including Marcos but they act oblivious to it.
In 1975, the mining company evicted the miners to have an open pit mine. Pablo was one of the officers assigned to this job. He met Elena during this time and they instantly had a connection. Elena’s father was the one leading the cult of light. From inside his body came a creature called Dekta that was supposed to assist him and Elena in lifting the fifth veil.
Elena didn’t want to go through with the process as she had started doubting this faith. When the ceremony was interrupted and everyone fled, she took that moment to kill her father with the help of Pablo.
20 years later, members of this cult wanted to try and open the fifth veil again with the help of Elena. Elena agreed to it as she realised that she can’t run away from them forever. But instead of opening the veil she went into the other world and tried to close the door forever as she thought there is no light on the other side but only darkness.
The people partaking in the ceremony succumbed to the poisonous fumes of the mine and started suffocating as Elena refuses to take them to the other side. One of them survived and she told Elena that they will now replace her and bring in her daughter, Sofia to lift all the five veils completely.
Back in the present, Estrella, the psychologist the town has appointed to take care of the two sisters researches and learns more about the Cult of Light. Their concept is based on the fact that no God would create a world like ours where there is war and pain. Humans can escape this world and return to the real one, and for that you need to achieve gnosis, which could be described as true knowledge.
Chisco, who is Sofia’s friend tells Eva all about the cult and Sofia’s involvement with them. Eva promises to never meet them again but her urge to be with her mother makes her make questionable choices.
Serafin comes to see the girls and also brings a stone as a gift and leaves a note from their father which asks them to meet him. That night, they go to meet him but he is captured by the police as Eva had already let them know about the note.
Sofia is still going through the process of lifting the veils one by one. However, she has to sacrifice people she is close to like Chisco and Eva to reach there. Yet she goes back to the cult but this time the police follow her there and capture everyone.
Guillen interviews the members of the cult but their vague answers frustrate him. He comes to a conclusion that someone in the cult is capable of manipulating people into killing themselves and others.
Pablo talks to his daughters candidly and warns Sofia not to open the fifth veil for anything in this world. Sofia realizes that Dekta has inhabited her body and it is controlling her actions so she cuts herself and lets it out. The creature transforms into gray material and spreads all across the town.
Here is the ending of Feria: The Darkest Light explained in detail (Episode 8: The Solitary King)
Dekta
The Kingdom has minor Gods that are called the Archons. These gods have the powers to cross the threshold and come into this world. Umma, Khiaram, Brantas are other creatures like Dekta.
They need a human body to inhabit and survive. The ‘vessel’ is a person who carries the Archon. It is through the Vessel that Archon operates.
Blanca is tied to the bed in the hospital, and she claims the Dekta isn’t inside her. Doctor Belda Guzman states that she has been ‘chosen.’
Pablo tells Guillen that once the door is open, the demons will find a way to come to this world. Guillen doesn’t believe him but when he sees Dekta coming out of Blanca’s mouth he is convinced.
Guillen has been suffering from leukemia and that is why Dekta is not able to inhabit his body as he is already approaching death.
The Temple
Lozano who is Eva’s friend Mar’s father, speaks to the sisters about the temple. He tells them that the black altar can be opened only by a perfect woman like Elena or Sofia. As they are talking he draws out a gun to kill Sofia as she is the only key left to open the door.
Raul, Eva’s friend comes to their rescue but he ends up killing Lozano in a possessed fit of rage. Halid has come to take Sofia to the temple. He says that Belda the doctor wants to close the path and for that he needs Sofia’s help.
Sofia refuses to keep running away and tells Halid to kill her. Halid refuses, so she tries jumping out of the hospital window, but Halid grabs her and subdues her, making her unconscious.
Pablo tells his daughter Eva that he’s been released. However, he suddenly turns on her and tries to choke her but she later comes to know that the person who came to see her was not her father. They soon realize that Sofia is missing and head to the mine to find her.
The Final Veil
Halid tries to buy time for Sofia to run but in the process gets killed by doctor Belda who then takes Sofia to the mine. The demon Umma kills Belda, and walks back into the gate.
Eva and Guillen make their way through the mine but a wall blocks them from getting to Sofia. Sofia is adamant not to open the door and even tries to shoot herself to stop what is happening.
At this moment she again sees her mother, who is reaching out to her. She succumbs to this feeling and ends up opening the fifth and final veil.
A huge demon slowly reveals itself from the other world and Sofia screams as she realizes what she has done. Season 1 of Feria: The Darkest Light ends here on this cliffhanger.