‘Blood Will Tell’ on Netflix: That Thrilling Ending Explained!

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Blood Will Tell. (That’s what you want, isn’t it?)

A new Spanish-language thriller, Blood Will Tell (originally La Misma Sangre, which literally translates to “the same blood.”) is now available to watch on Netflix, if you happen to be in the mood for a slow-burn thriller this weekend.

The Argentinian film, from director Miguel Cohan, stars Oscar Martínez (the celebrated  Argentinian actor, not the character from The Office) as an older man named Elías whose wife, an unhappy woman played by Paulina García, dies suddenly and mysteriously while she’s making cheese on their farm. Elías’s son-in-law, Santiago (played by actor Diego Velázquez, who I think looks sort of like Jon Hamm) starts to suspect Elías may be responsible for the death. He starts to investigate, to the dismay of his wife, Carla (Dolores Fonzi).

What follows is a series of twists and turns, flashbacks, suspense, and family drama. If you got lost, here’s a basic overview of how it went down.

WHAT IS THE BLOOD WILL TELL PLOT TWIST? WHAT ARE THE BLOOD WILL TELL SPOILERS? WHO KILLED ADRIANA?

We learn in a flashback that Adriana was having an affair with her cousin. We also learn that Elías and Adriana are having money problems and that Elías mortgaged their house without telling his wife. This sends Adriana into a rage, pushing her to ask for a divorce. Elias is upset—not because he loves his wife, but because he fears a divorce will only make their financial crisis worse. They fight while Adriana is churning cheese at a large mechanical mixer. Adriana’s necklace gets caught on the machine, choking her. She begs Elias to help her, but he does not—instead, he watches as she slowly chokes to death. So though it was not premeditated, I think we can say that Elías killed Adriana.

HOW DOES BLOOD WILL TELL END? WHAT DOES THE BLOOD WILL TELL ENDING MEAN?

Santiago starts to put together clues. He suspects Elías is hiding something about Adriana’s death, but his wife Carla refuses to hear it.

Elías is wracked by guilt and still in extreme debt, unable to pay back the people he owes money. He nearly commits suicide but is interrupted. Carla begins her own investigations—she visits her mother’s lover, searching for clues, which prompts said lover to confront Elías on his own. That wasn’t such a smart decision—Elías shoots him dead and hides the body, now fully committed to this whole murder thing.

But then—plot twist alert—exhausted from hauling the body into a pit, Elías accidentally falls into the pit himself and is impaled on a spike. Injured but not quite dead, he is found and rescued by his daughter. He continues to lie to her about what happened to his wife, but Carla doesn’t believe him. At first, she starts to help him with his injury, but then, disgusted, she flees, and lets him bleed out on the floor. Like father, like daughter. The very last shot is one of Carla attending her father’s funeral.

IS BLOOD WILL TELL GOOD?

I enjoyed Blood Will Tell. The performances are solid, it’s well-directed, and for much of the film, I was on the edge of my seat—not an easy feat for 11 a.m. on a Friday. If you have a free hour and a half, go ahead and queue up Blood Will Tell.

Stream Blood Will Tell on Netflix