The Snow Girl is a Spanish thriller television series that depicts the disappearance of a little girl during a parade in Málaga and the determination of a young newspaper writer to assist Amaya’s parents in finding her. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Amaya, a five-year-old girl, goes missing during a Twelfth Night procession in Málaga, Spain, leaving her parents, Ana and Álvaro, devastated.
When Amaya’s abduction makes headlines, it piques the interest of newspaper intern Miren, who works for the provincial daily Diario Sur. Meanwhile, the case’s investigators, Belén Millán and her partner Chaparro, interview every witness and suspect involved.
Miren had a past traumatic experience of rape which disturbed her when meeting people and this pulls her closer to Amaya’s case.
6 years after Amaya’s disappearance, Miren receives a videotape with Amaya’s footage at her office which is later shown to Amaya’s parents. Even when Ana and Álvaro are no longer together Miren still hasn’t given up on finding Amaya.
The story jumps ahead to 2019 when Miren again receives a message on her phone which leads to a video of Amay with a label saying ‘Adios’.
During her investigation, Miren discovers that a lady named Iris Molina was involved in Amaya’s abduction.
The earlier suspects in Amaya’s case, James Foster and David Loque are killed when James Foster’s caravan is set on fire. Belén arrives to question Miren about her involvement in James Foster’s death.
The tale then flashes back to 2010, the day Amaya was kidnapped. When Amaya gets lost during the procession, Iris Molina, who was unable to conceive, abducts her.
Despite her good intentions, Iris brainwashes and grooms Amaya over the following nine years into believing her name is Julia and that Iris and her husband, Santiago are her true parents.
Raul, Iris and Santiago’s landlord, comes to collect the mortgage payment. Unfortunately for Raul, he arrives unexpectedly at the residence and happens to observe Iris dragging Amaya inside.
Even though he doesn’t say anything, he’s clearly skeptical, and Iris notices. To conceal their secret, she murders Raul. Iris becomes increasingly apprehensive over time.
Santiago gets killed in a road accident and Iris intends to leave the country and go to France with Amaya for a fresh start. Before they depart, she sends Miren a second videotape, this time branded ‘goodbye’, to let everyone know that they would not be contacting them again.
Belén and Chaparro ask Miren about her relationship with James Foster. Miren argues that the only reason the images were in his safe were because she was on assignment at the time.
Eduardo arrives shortly after to pick her up, and because the detectives lack genuine proof linking Miren to the killings, they are forced to let her go.
After being released from jail, David travels to meet James after someone arranges for them to meet. Photographs of the two together were taken and distributed to make it appear as though they snitched on the porn site members.
Belén encounters Miren once more outside her apartment. They’ve linked the images to a certain camera model, and they know they were printed at a library near Miren’s apartment.
Miren continues to deny any knowledge of their killings, but acknowledges she is not sorry for what happened to them. Eduardo stops in a side street on the way back to the newspaper offices to pick up Miren’s car so she may dodge the reporters crowding the building.
Miren’s identity has been exposed, and it is now being publicized in the media. Eduardo retrieves Miren’s car keys and drives somewhere secluded so that Miren can visit Iris.
Eduardo discovers Miren’s camera inside her car and snoops through it, noticing the leaked photographs of David and James, suggesting that Miren was really the one who organized their murders.
Miren goes to meet Iris in her house which is situated in the outskirts and secluded part of the country. Iris recognizes Miren and remains on edge during their chat. Miren doesn’t see or suspect anything until she notices Iris’s headband is the same one Amaya used in the 2019 video.
Miren’s presence frightens Iris, so she orders Amaya to pack and depart that night. Miren follows them in her car, and Iris learns she is being followed.
Iris attempts to murder herself and Amaya by driving her car off a cliff. Iris does not survive the crash, but Amaya does. Amaya is eventually reunited with her parents in the hospital.
Eduardo comes to the hospital to pick up Miren and informs her he located the camera and extracted the memory card from it. Miren was ready to go on with her life and intended to spend some time with her mother.
Miren becomes a popular author after two years, presenting a reading for her latest book, which is about Amaya’s case and her role in the investigation.
Miren receives another envelope from an unknown source towards the end of the event. Inside was a polaroid snapshot of a young girl chained and blindfolded, implying that someone is looking for Miren’s assistance in solving another missing girl case.
The Snow Girl ending explained in detail:
Why does Belen take Miren into custody for James’s death?
When James was arrested in 2016 in connection with Amaya’s kidnapping, he admitted to authorities of abusing a young girl but claimed to have discovered God and gone to rehab. James also claims that he was not there at the parade when Amaya went missing.
Miren meets James, hoping for some information that may aid her in Amaya’s case, but instead, he informs her that he knows Miren’s past and can furnish her with a list of individuals who have harmed her.
James asks for money in return for the favor he is doing. When Miren doesn’t have enough cash to give him, James strikes a strange bargain with Miren at his caravan.
He clicks a lot of pictures of Miren in his polaroid camera and Miren eventually obtains the lists of those who saw the porn site managed by David.
After James was killed, Belen and her team obtains pictures of Miren from a small suitcase of James while searching for evidence in James’s Caravan which was set on fire. This leads Belen to Miren.
Why does Iris take Amaya during the parade?
Iris Molina has a defective ovary that prevented her from having a kid. Ana, Amaya’s mother, was her doctor, and she informed Iris that she would never be able to conceive again.
Iris was devastated to hear this and blamed herself for not having the physical strength to have a kid. Her spouse attempts to encourage her and assures her that she will become a mother.
Iris discovers Amaya crying and reaching out for her mother after she becomes separated from her during the parade.
Iris might easily have returned Amaya to her parents after recognizing her as her doctor’s daughter, but she takes the hasty choice to abduct her instead.
Iris asks her husband to discard the yellow raincoat Amaya was wearing so that nobody finds where Amaya was. She muffles Amaya’s voice who was still calling out for her mother and father when Ana and Álvaro were searching for Amaya calling out her name.
Why does Iris send the video of Amaya to Miren?
Iris and Santiago couldn’t risk taking Amaya out of the home because her story was all over the news and in the papers, so Amaya was forced to live a very secluded and lonely existence.
Every day, Iris monitors the news in a locked room and learns that Ana is in a difficult condition after losing her kid. Iris felt bad, but she couldn’t bring herself to return Amaya to Ana and her husband.
Iris discovers that Miren was still behind the case six years after Amaya’s abduction. Iris sends a video of Amaya to Miren, knowing she’ll show it to Amaya’s true parents to reassure them that Amaya is safe.
How does Iris pay off the mortgage?
After Raul’s murder, Iris assures Santiago that she would do whatever to keep Amaya, even if it means killing herself and Amaya.
Santiago was profoundly worried by Iris’ unpredictable conduct, which leads him to the police station, where he plans to confess to the kidnapping.
But, as he crosses the street to go inside, he is hit by a car and killed. His death results in a sizable life insurance claim for Iris using which she pays off the mortgage.
How did Miren find out that Amaya was with Iris?
When Miren travels to visit Iris at her home, which is located in a remote area, Iris recognizes her instantly and hesitates to talk to her.
Miren was ready to depart when she spots a little bicycle in a corner of their garden and starts walking towards it. Seeing this Iris rushes out of her house and welcomes Miren inside.
She converses with Miren casually, but she has a knife in her pocket in case she needs to kill Miren. Amaya is in the other room the entire time, attempting to remain quiet and prevent the dog from alerting Miren to her presence.
Miren rummages around various rooms while Iris is gone in Amaya’s room trying to calm the dog. Finally, she discovers that the hair band worn by Amaya in the videotape is the same one worn by Iris. Miren confirms Iris was responsible for the kidnapping and quickly departs the house.
She pulls over some distance away from Iris’s house and contacts Belena to alert her that Iris was the one who took Amaya. Miren gets out of her car with her camera to photograph Iris because the call was unclear on both sides.
She notices Iris driving away with Amaya in her car when she was hiding behind bushes.
What happens to Amaya after the accident?
She notices Iris driving away with Amaya in her car when she was hiding behind bushes. Amaya is eventually reunited with her parents, but it is not a happy homecoming.
Amaya still responds exclusively to the name Julia, and she’s plainly devastated by Iris’ death and everything else that’s occurred to her in the last nine years.
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