We can’t remember the last time we came across a show like “Sky Rojo,” one that was so honest, so raw, and heart-wrenchingly sad, yet with insanely funny moments. It wasn’t an easy show to watch. In fact, we found ourselves wanting to turn away from the screen for several moments. But that’s where the beauty of good writing lies. The writers of “Sky Rojo” obviously knew what they were doing. Whenever the subject of tailoring some aspect of filmmaking for the audience comes up, it usually takes on a negative tone due to the unfortunate perception that the endeavor compromises the overall product. As uncomfortable as this line of thought makes us, we are hard-pressed to find evidence to refute it. That primarily happens because most makers don’t give the audience enough credit for their intelligence. This is also the reason for the overpopulation of mediocre content on every platform. But once in a while, the makers gauge the neglected hunger of the audience to be wowed by a story on screen.
When it comes to the premise of the series, it revolves around three prostitutes who escape after causing chaos at their club in order to earn their freedom. The title translates to “Red Sky.” It is not a “red leatherette sofa,” as some Google searches are suggesting. What makes this story so unique is its sensitivity and insight into the deepest and darkest corners of the human heart and how it has been brought out through the narrative. Therefore, before we watch the third season, let us take a look at the events of the previous two.
‘Sky Rojo’ Season 1: Recap
Our society is not designed to keep its women safe. No matter how privileged, they are always at risk of emotional, physical, or societal harm. The very foundation of it lies in an imbalanced power structure, one that is built through the male gaze, and Romeo’s club is the personification of it. He had built a place that catered to every possible, depraved fantasy of men, in which women were nothing more than objects. He and his aides, Moises and Christian, did that by bringing in women from impoverished areas of different countries and trapping them to work in their club by creating an elaborate cycle of debt. The women would earn money that they sent back home, but at the same time, Romeo kept tabs on the money spent by him on their clothes, makeup, protection, and literally anything else. While he called these an investment in the business, he ruthlessly used them, along with threats to harm their families back home, as the chains on the women’s feet to keep them bound in his service. Additionally, he also confiscated their passports, making their escape impossible. This was a carefully created system where he was nothing less than their god, and he relished this status as much as the profits he made off them.
As for our three protagonists, Gina, Wendy, and Coral, they were employed by Romeo. Gina had been brought from Columbia with the promise of a waitressing job, which she had taken up to take care of her mother and son back home. Wendy had come into the club to earn enough money for her and her girlfriend so that they could lead a comfortable life later on. But her girlfriend had broken up with her after Wendy had sent her the money. As for Coral, she had come into the club of her own free will. She had been in an abusive relationship before, which, as she claimed, had left her with low self-esteem. She had tried to kill her husband but had killed her mother-in-law instead. Ever since then, she had been on the run, and coming to Romeo’s club was her way of staying safe. However, she was a highly qualified individual. Romeo had asked her to start tutoring his daughters when his wife fell ill. During that time, he fell in love with her. Coral was aware of it, but she always kept him at a distance. However, she got involved with Moises. He was her “pimp,” who would drive her to and from her gigs. As they spent more and more time together, they ended up getting involved, though Moises tried to keep her at a distance, as he believed that he might have to hurt her due to the nature of their jobs. But undoubtedly, both Moises and Romeo were in love with her.
However, the latter had just lost his wife to cancer. On the day he buried her, he decided that the club must stay open for business. Gina gives him over five thousand euros, which is the amount of her debt, and asks him to let her go. But Romeo brings up an account book where he lists out all the items, he has spent money on for her and tells her that her debt is far from over. Frustrated at her circumstances and overwhelmed by the impossibility of her situation, Gina attacks him, but he proves to be too strong for her. Wendy and Coral come to her rescue, with the latter hitting him on the head. Believing they have killed him, the three women flee the club, only to return so as not to aggravate the situation further. But that is exactly what happens when one of the club managers, Charlotte, tries to attack them and, instead, comes in front of a truck and dies. Now that there is no looking back, the women are on the run. They hide out in what looks like a department store for the night and wonder what their next move should be. Unknown to them, Romeo is alive, though the mishap has left his left side completely paralyzed. He calls Coral the next morning and threatens her with dire consequences for her actions. She doesn’t know it yet, but they are being tracked through her phone. When they are discovered by the security guard, they make a run for it, though there is a fight scene first where the girls get the better of him.
For their next stop, Gina tells them about a man who would be willing to protect them. He is the man Gina is in love with. She is also pregnant with his child. She goes to meet him while the other two wait by the pool. To Gina’s disappointment, though Fernando doesn’t turn her away, she realizes that he doesn’t see her as an equal partner. Heartbroken, she makes her way to her friends but finds that Coral has taken one too many pills and is trying to revive herself by dunking her head underwater. Just when it looks like she has come back to her senses, she spots Moises and Christian coming their way. These two have been instructed to bring the girls back to the club unharmed, and they have been tracking them down. The girls are rescued when Fernando intervenes and asks them to step outside. But now, the women are trapped inside the hotel. They come up with a plan where they hold Moises and Christian at gunpoint and go back to the club to take their passports and some money. But the plan backfires simply because the men are far more used to combat and are able to overpower the women. However, an accidental gunshot nips off the bottom part of Christian’s ear, which makes his temper go off. He drags Wendy out and is ready to shoot her. Moises steps out to stop him and taking advantage of the situation, Coral and Gina drive away with the car. Christian stops another car on the road and shoots the driver to take it.
With nobody watching her, Wendy escapes and ends up in a warehouse. While she is hiding, the men are able to track her down, but before they can pull her out, the owner of the warehouse holds them at gunpoint. Wendy does some quick thinking and makes her presence known with a gun in her hand. Under the pretense of calling the police, she lets Gina and Coral know her location and gets them to the warehouse. Wendy is rescued, but she is furious with the other two. She and Coral get into a fight, and the latter assures her that they would have come back for her. They take the men’s car since theirs is stuck in a ditch and make their escape. Coral figures out that they are being tracked and gets rid of her phone. It also becomes obvious to Christian that his brother and Coral were previously involved.
Complicating the girls’ plan is the fact that the guy Christian had shot was still locked in the car’s trunk. When they try to take him to the hospital, they run into Romeo, and he sees red. There is a tense car chase where the women decide that they are done being the hunted and want to take the hunter’s role. With a bit of cleverness, they disable Romeo’s vehicle and make their escape. This proves to be a mistake later on because the people they keep leaving alive out of conscience are the ones who want them to die. For now, the women take him to the vet, who had helped cover up Gina’s wounds after they had escaped from the club. Sadly, the guy does not make it.
While the women are planning their next move, an injured Romeo makes it back to the club with his aides. Christian and Moises support him, and it becomes increasingly clear that he is akin to their family. But things get complicated when Romeo realizes that Moises had a relationship with Coral. He is furious and asks him to prove his loyalty. As for the women, they decide that they want to steal the money that Romeo has made off of them. But things can never go right. They lay a trap for the brothers while Coral goes to meet Romeo to retrieve the items they want. But she is in for a surprise, as Romeo feels betrayed after knowing her past with Moises. They get into a fight, and in his fragile state, Coral is able to get the better of him. But at the last minute, her conscience wins, and she gives him CPR to revive him. “Sky Rojo” Season 1 ends with him waking up and grabbing her by the neck.
‘Sky Rojo’ Season 2: Recap
“Sky Rojo” Season 2 starts right where the first season has ended. Romeo doesn’t want to kill Coral anymore, especially after she has saved his life. Meanwhile, Moises leaves Christian behind, as he wants him to have a fresh start by not getting involved in the mess that is happening. It is when he is apart from him that he takes the bait laid by Gina and Wendy and ends up in the ditch they have dug up. The girls cover up the hole with sand and leave him to die. They run into Christian, but he tells them that he doesn’t want to fight them. He drops his gun, but Wendy is not ready for a truce. She especially hates him since she remembers that he sexually assaulted her when she insisted on drawing boundaries with her clients. Luckily for Christian, she doesn’t kill him and just leaves on the bike with Gina. That proves to be a mistake because Christian is close to where Moises is buried, and he hears the sound of his car horn. Figuring out the situation, he rescues his brother, who now wants revenge before they can start their new life.
Back at the club, Coral tears up Romeo’s account book and hands the rest of the girls their passports. She could have left immediately, but she is extremely high on pills and drugs and tries to get some revenge on the bodyguards by getting them to dance the way the girls danced every night. This proves to be a fatal mistake because the whole thing just delays her departure, and she is eventually overpowered and taken hostage by Romeo.
As for Gina and Wendy, they seek refuge in a shelter in the woods. Wendy is injured, but they need to be prepared for trouble. They prove they are right because the brothers have tracked them down since Gina turned on her phone to call Coral. They attack the cottage, but the girls have far more ammunition and hence, the upper hand. When Moises leaves to get some gasoline to set the place on fire, Gina and Wendy work fast and trap Christian. Now that he is in the cottage, Moises cannot harm them. In fact, they use him as a bargaining chip to get Romeo to release Coral. The plan works, and Coral is delivered to them safe and sound. When they are escaping, they take Christian with them, which forces Romeo to alter a trap he had laid for them. But as we said before, things seldom go right for these girls. They change cars because they fear that the one, they are driving, which belongs to Romeo, can be tracked. However, their biggest mistake is leaving behind Christian. The women steal a car from a driver on the road, but they have the worst luck in the world as they pass by Romeo’s car. It results in a chase where the women are easily overpowered. Similar to what they had done to Moises, they are left in a hole in the earth in their car, but instead of sand, they are covered with fast-drying concrete. Believing the women to be dead, the men go back to the club to celebrate. Despite the current plight of Coral, Gina, and Wendy, the most tragic thing that will probably happen is that Christian discovers the women with their passports and takes them all back.
Their party starts, and Moises and Christian tell Romeo that they want to quit the business. Romeo agrees, but he is clearly unhappy about it. He and Moises are also in a state of grief, as they have both lost Coral, the woman they loved. Unable to bear the guilt, Moises seeks advice from a friend. We have an understanding that she is a spiritual person who shares drugs with Moises. She advises him to think over his decisions, but Moises doesn’t have the time. He moves fast and rescues the girl from their grave. He checks them into a hotel and asks Coral if she would like to go with his family to Namibia to start a new life. Coral refuses, and that night, the girls are free for the first time in a long time. But they still have a problem, and that is that neither of them has enough money. This brings them back to their previous agenda: stealing the money from Romeo. They hatch a plan where they will steal the money right before he is about to launder it.
Elsewhere, Moises and Christian find themselves in big trouble when Romeo kidnaps their mother. He tells them to continue working for him, and neither of them is happy about it. It is a moment of reckoning for Moises since he had always felt as if he owed Romeo something after he helped him cover up his abusive father’s murder. But seeing that he prized himself above all else put things in perspective for Moises. He plans to intercept the money to be laundered and hold it for Romeo so that he can exchange it for his mother.
Meanwhile, the girls enlist the help of Fermin, the guy who had sexually assaulted Wendy at the bar and was a regular customer at the club. They blackmailed him into helping them. We would have elaborated more on the circumstances of his involvement with them, but it is a rather disturbing part of the story, one that brings to light just how little people understand the concept of consent. If you have seen the “Sky Rojo” series, then you know what we are talking about. We would not want to elaborate more on that part of the narrative. All we can say is that Fermin enthusiastically joins the women in their mission, as a way to redeem himself. During the robbery, Christian recognizes Wendy by her tattoo and realizes that the girls are alive. But he has been shot and is unable to do anything. Moises manages to hang onto their van when Coral’s mask comes off. The van stops, and he is thrown onto the rocks. Again, Coral should have left him there, but she takes him with them and keeps him tied to the chair. Fermin is sent back home, and the girls decide to wait near a ferry for Coral. But she is once again high on drugs, and instead of doing the practical things, she starts telling Moises why their relationship is toxic. But he is a smarter person than she, and he manages to cut his ties and free himself. Coral is severely injured, and she ends up losing an eye. Moises ties her up and gathers the money. He needs to get it back to Romeo to save his brother. Right before he is about to leave, Coral’s words get into his head, and he comes back to her. He is just about to kill her when Gina and Wendy come back and rescue her. The three of them successfully leave on the boat with the money.
As for Christian, Romeo reveals that he has killed his mother by placing her in a freezer. Not only this, he lets Christian bleed to death. But he turns the situation in his favor by placing his body right where the robbery had taken place. He calls Moises and tells him that Christian had died because of the gunshot wound when it was really Romeo who had let him die by ignoring his pleas to go to a hospital. Moises falls for the ruse, and he promises Romeo that they will get their revenge together.
What Can We Expect From Season 3 of ‘Sky Rojo’?
From the trailer of “Sky Rojo” Season 3, we know that the girls are unable to shake off the trauma and the fear that they endured while on the run. They are also found out by Moises and Romeo, which means that they will once again be involved in a violent cat-and-mouse chase. However, this time, we believe that there is no room for the sparing of someone’s life due to a conscience. They had decided to let their hatred go to be able to live normal lives. But that had not turned into a reality. This time, when they take up arms again, it won’t be out of hatred or for their self-preservation but for their peace of mind. All we want is a happy ending for the women, one where they are peacefully sipping on their favorite drink while watching the sunset. We hope they get that.
