Breathless (2024) – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Episode 3

Episode 3 of Breathless aka Respira begins with Rodri jumping off the roof. He is heavily injured but alive when he is brought in. Everyone is in despair and Biel wants to comfort Jesica but Lluis arrives with good news. Rodri is stable but in a coma. 

Meanwhile, Leo visits Joana and claims that they may be found out for falsifying the report. She starts asking the girl if she is sure about the assaulter’s identity and Joana snaps back that she is extremely sure. It cuts to Hugo begging his parents to help as he is innocent and we learn that his father is Lluis. Alone, Leo tells Lluis the truth and points out that she cannot testify as she is the defendant’s mother.

However, she can get the report dropped with the help of May. She requests May to stick to her initial stance of not agreeing that there was any abrasion or assault. However, May shares that she will either tell the whole truth that Leo messed up the report or she will not say anything.

Leo begs her to help but when she is called to the stand, May chooses to protect Leo’s career and claims she cannot testify as she did not personally examine Joana. With the enormity of the accusation and lack of evidence, the court decides to keep Hugo in custody till his trial.

Meanwhile, the ER is overflowing with the fair patients and the staff holds a meeting to discuss how understaffed they are. They also bring up Rodri’s case and how they don’t have enough money for more attendants. Moa wants to go on strike for 5 minutes to prove their point but Lluis refuses. 

Patricia shows up and complains about her hair loss as she doesn’t want to give the media or her opposition any ammunition. Moa finds it ridiculous and points out that it is too early for the chemo to cause hair loss. Her problems are far from over as the angry tourists who got sick due to the fair are going viral on social media for the lack of medical attention. To shut them up, Patricia orders Lluis to send some of the local patients home and prioritise the tourists.

Moa is upset but decides to go another way as he searches high and dry to solve Patricia’s hair loss. He gets his hand on a prototype and while giving it to her, emotionally blackmails on how the locals would also benefit from a doctor’s help. It seems to work as she looks annoyed. We then see her telling her PA, Emilio that she wants private care for the fair patients. He is shocked and tries to deter her but she refuses to change her mind. 

As for Pilar, she tries to comfort her son but he is uncomfortable as she has never been a loving parent. She agrees and shares she is trying to do her best. To turn a new leaf, she invites Quique over for dinner. He is uncomfortable as he has been trying to cut ties with Oscar who is besotted with him.

Dinner goes exactly as he imagines with Oscar secretly hitting on him. But it seems that Quique also likes him. Afterwards, Pilar sends away Oscar and tells Quique that she needs her help in catching the junkies who Oscar hangs out with. A dumbfounded Quique agrees. 

All of the 1st years give Rodri company and Biel notices that Jesica has been avoiding her brother. He tries to comfort her but she refuses to listen. She keeps searching for Lluis who is busy trying to sort his son’s mess. Scared to see her brother on death’s door, Jesica makes herself busy by taking on a new patient, Pablo who has a stomachache.

He is morbidly obese and he scoffs when her only diagnosis is to lose weight. That night, they end up talking about their fears as she asks how he copes. For her, she tends to distract herself as she tries to hook up with Biel who refuses and tells her to visit her brother before it is too late. 

The next day, she realises her mistake and agrees to visit Rodri with Biel. Alone, he looks at his scar and Quique jokes that he and Rodri used to bet on how he must have got the scar. Biel reveals that he had cancer and unable to see him, sick, his father abandoned him. They promise to tell this to Rodri once he wakes up. Meanwhile, May and Rocio are planning to move to Germany once the former finishes her residency. 

While Jesica gets ready to see her brother, Pablo has some kind of attack but an X-ray is not enough to see what is going on. She has an idea and runs a CT scan with the machine used on elephants at the zoo. She is able to spot the complications and Pilar offers to take over as Jesica heads to see her brother.

She is too late as Biel reveals that Rodri is dead. As she cries, the 1st years are furious that the hospital did nothing to help him. At the end of Breathless Episode 3, Moa decides to organise an indefinite strike till their demands are met.

The Episode Review

Breathless Episode 3 complicates it for our characters and even brings the law into the matter. There’s poor Rodri who tries to take it upon himself and ends with a much worse fate. At least, his death spurs the staff into action even though a strike is not exactly a good solution. And sure, Patricia getting selfless seems utopic but for the sake of drama, we will let it pass.

The Pilar and Quique conflict is a little weird though. First of all, she has been portrayed as this fiery snake who will destroy everyone on her path but so far we have only heard of her reputation, not seen anything. So we do hope the show doesn’t hype her up only to let us down. And why is Quique so worried? He didn’t even know Oscar before the orgy. If she is asking for his junkie friends, you are in the clear Quique, you don’t even clarify as a friend.