Public Virtues
Episode 8 of Gloria Season 1 begins with firefighters putting out the fire. Sofia is fine, taken to the hospital on a stretcher, while Joao is also unscathed. ..
Joao is examined and questioned at the hospital about the gunshot wound on his arm. He pleads with the doctor not to include this information in the report, doing his best to cover up that he was in the courtyard that night.
Anne is suspicious of Joao’s motives though, especially as he went inside the house to get changed before running back out again. When the doctor appears in the hallway, he tells Anne that Joao has superficial burns and an old wound from a mortar blast. Notably, he doesn’t mention the gunshot wound. ..
Ramiro visits Sofia after she is saved by him. He questions why it wasn’t him who saved her, but it’s clear that he was the only one who could have done so. There is no love or emotion left between them and they are only together because of Sofia being pregnant.
Joao and Alexandre are discharged from the hospital after being treated for their injuries. They are eager to get back to work, specifically kidnapping Miguel in order to find out what he knows. Miguel reiterates that Wilson is the one responsible for all this, along with the crucial bit of information that he recommended a psychiatrist for Mia. That guy works at Santarem Hospital, under the name of Doctor Carlos Silveira. ..
The KGB’s dismissal of RARET is brought up next, where he mentions the photos of women in underwear. As he sobs, Alexandre looks set to pull the trigger and kill the guy… until Joao saves his life. “He doesn’t seem trained to lie,” He shrugs. Either way though, the KGB can’t take that risk and choke him out after extracting everything they can.
The Dr Silveira tip is enough for Joao to go up and chase this lead. He questions the doctor about Mia but he claims not to know who she is. He’s very clearly lying so Joao turns to the next best thing, sleeping with the receptionist.
Joao stole keys from Joana’s bag while she was asleep and made his way back to the doctor’s office. There, he found a tape but for Sofia rather than Mia. With numerous other tapes there too, he fed this back to Alexandre. ..
Joao discovers that his father has been lying to him all this time. He finds out that he has a secret lover and family, including a daughter called Clara. ..
Anne has been a wildcard throughout this season and here we see her getting close to the truth. She visits the American ambassador, Parker, and tells him what she’s suspecting. She believes Joao is working with the KGB, which of course is exactly what he’s doing. ..
While all this is happening, Carolina and her family are preparing for Fernando’s return to the mainland. There is a lot of buzz being generated around this, but there is a problem. Fernando is not in the right headspace and in fact, as the episode closes out, he sits alone with his gun. As the camera cuts to his squadron outside, a gunshot sounds. Has he killed himself? ..
The Episode Review
The latest episode of Gloria continued to blend the soap opera with espionage action, and the balance here was a little better. Joao walking away from the fire absolutely fine was pretty farfetched, as was the idea that Sofia too walked away without a scratch. ..
The first half of the show has been ruthless in its killing off of key characters, like Ursula and Irina. Despite Miguel meeting an untimely demise, he’s only a two-bit player. ..
Gloria delivers another strong episode, although the Fernando/Carolina subplot feels a bit misplaced; I’m not quite sure what this brings to the story beyond adding the obligatory love triangle.
