Breathless (2024) – Season 1 Episode 2 Recap & Review

Episode 2

[trigger warning – mention of rape and suicide]

Episode 2 of Breathless aka Respira begins with Rodri being traumatized because of the girl’s death. He is to be questioned by the hospital board and Jesica tries to help him. However, she is not allowed and she requests Lluis to take care of him. Biel watches Jesica and Lluis holding hands and he is surprised. The couple also talk about Jesica finally introducing Lluis to her parents as her boyfriend.

During the investigation, Lluis shares that the mother claims her sign has been forged and if that’s the truth, Rodri can be arrested for it. He panics and decides to quit. As he rushes out, Jesica tries to reason with him that it was the brother’s fault but he doesn’t want to get the family into trouble. She accepts that no attendant should have left him alone in the OR and that he should not beat himself up for it. However, he leaves the hospital.

A tourism fair is ongoing and Patricia visits. When asked if she will be resigning as president, she refuses. She then ends up at the public hospital which doesn’t make her happy as the unanimous verdict is that Dr. Moa is the best oncologist there is. They continue to bicker as Moa is blunt and doesn’t sugarcoat the truth.

They immediately begin with chemo and Biel comforts a scared Patricia. He tells her to face her illness like a campaign and it cuts to her bringing in reporters to document her fight against cancer. Moa is furious and tells her to kick them out soon.

Meanwhile, May and her attendant, Leo receive Joana, a potential rape victim. Leo is on edge and believes May is judging the girl. They clash on ideals as May believes one should be careful when accusing someone while Leo insists on believing the victim first. Once the check-up is done, Joana looks downcast as she realises that there may be no evidence.

She was also high so she doesn’t remember the incident clearly. The only thing she has is her broken necklace which may have the man’s fingerprint. However, she is frightened to go to the cops and Leo forges the report. May catches her but Leo pretends that she is right. 

As for Biel, he is upset with the way Jesica is handling Rodri. She observes that he may be angry about something else and that is indeed the case as he is upset that she didn’t tell him who her boyfriend was. She doesn’t think it is his business and he claims he doesn’t want to get fired for sleeping with the director’s girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Quique visits Oscar who is feeling better. They are scared about their HIV results but both cases are different – Quique has always been on PrEP and forgot to take it during the orgy while Oscar has never been on PrEP. Oscar is scared to tell his mother and Quique assures him that he will be fine. Later on, Pilar approaches Quique and thanks him for comforting her son. However, she vows to catch the culprit who is responsible for her son’s drug use.

Quique recalls Rocio being at the ER when he brought in Oscar and requests her not to tell Pilar. But she knows she will win brownie points with Pilar if she tells her the truth. She suggests that if Pilar asks her outright, she will tell her about Quique. He is upset and rants to May who has her own grievance against Leo.

After he leaves, we see that she is having an affair with Rocio as they kiss and she tells May to ease up since she is pregnant. May snitches on Leo and Rocio tells her that doctors need to have each other’s back. May scoffs as she asks about Rocio telling on Quique and Rocio deflects.

As for Patricia, despite claiming that her first sitting will be fine, she pukes her guts out. While the nurse looks for Moa, she disappears. At that moment, the ER is full of fair-goers due to food poisoning and Moa deduces that Patricia possibly had food poisoning from the fair before she came for chemo. Biel and Moa rush to her house and find her unconscious. Moa is able to wake her up and looks relieved.

Meanwhile, Quique sees that his HIV test has come back negative. He is overjoyed and heads to Oscar’s room. However, he comes across Oscar crying with his mother and he deciphers that his test must have been positive.

The ER is again understaffed and all interns are needed at the hospital. Quique finds Rodri crying in the shower and tells him to come back. Rodri feels pressured as he is not a good doctor like his father or sister. But Quique assures him that he is a doctor in his own right and brings him back.

It is chaos and once again Rodri is left with a patient who is on the verge of bleeding to death. With Nurse Blanca telling him to go with his gut, he takes the decision to intubate the patient and succeeds. He is relieved and Jesica calls him a lifesaver.

Meanwhile, Joana reports her assaulter, Hugo to the cops. They come and take him away while his mother is in shock. It cuts to her and we see Hugo’s mother is none other than Leo. 

As for Rodri, his happiness is short-lived as the little girl’s mother storms up to him and reveals that his lawyer threatened to sue them if her son does not owe up to forging her signature. She is upset that he is harassing them and hopes that her daughter’s death will always haunt him. He tries to explain that he did not send any lawyer before breaking down. He tries to talk to the resident, psychiatrist, Neus but everyone’s busy.

At the end of Breathless Episode 2, Rodri goes live on the roof and shares that the hospital is understaffed and there are multiple times when the 1st years are left unsupervised as the attendants are busy. However, he believes that the girl’s death is solely his fault. He heads to the edge of the roof and the live cuts before he can jump.

The Episode Review

Breathless Episode 2 raises the stakes even higher. We see that it is not only people’s lives that are at risk but also reputations and mental trauma. The most shocking moment without a doubt happens to be Leo’s storyline. In trying to help a girl, she falsifies the report only for it to be used against her son. And now, no one knows the truth except Joana and Hugo. 

Then there is Jesica, who in trying to help her brother, pushes him off the ledge, figuratively. It is very likely that she hired the lawyer to threaten the girl’s family since she knows that the boy forged the signature. But if Rodri is one of the main protagonists, we doubt he will die so soon. Guess, we need to tune into the next one to see where all this chaos leads.