Summer Heat – Season 1 Episode 8: Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Summer’s End

Does Diego save Rodrigo’s life?

Episode 8 of Summer Heat wastes absolutely no time picking up where we left off. Rodrigo is drowning and Diego tries to reach him. Echoes of the past bleed through but Danilo’s spirit helps Diego overcome his fears and save Rodrigo’s life. He’s pulled back to the shore, with no serious injuries.

After saving Rodrigo from the ocean, Diego admits to Catarina that he feels a lot calmer and seems to have let go of his past. He wants to spend his future with her, and sets up a trip to leave tomorrow. They’re going to make a fresh start of it and head for Chile.

Just before she goes, Catarina heads to jail to speak to her mother. She admits she’s leaving but her mother scoffs at the idea and questions whether Catarina has really told him who she is. This causes Catarina to get cold feet and confronts Diego, deciding they should break up.

Her reasoning is pretty weak and centers on believing she’ll hurt him but the irony is, she’s already hurting him now by breaking up.

Elias meanwhile, pedals the story that Rodrigo tried to commit suicide. With his mum nowhere to be seen, and trouble with the construction, Rodrigo makes his choice and offers his help.

What happens with Helena and the drugs?

Meanwhile, Yasmin catches up with Miguel. He’s a mess, especially after seeing her cheat on him last episode. Another character whose a mess is Marilia, who continues to deal drugs with Caco. He hands over the package for her to sell, which, as it turns out, is the last one.

When Helena presses Marilia on the truth, she reveals that Caco will be paying his alimony in cash every month from now on. Only, that also means he’s going to share custody of Sophia.

After what happened with Sofia last episode, Marilia is completely broke and doesn’t have any other choice. Well, Helena decides to repay her earlier kindness about facing her fears and decides to pay off her debts. As the pair embrace, it seems things are on the up for the pair.

Hiding the evidence

Catarina meanwhile, continues to hide her deception from Paula. It seems she’s not grown at all since the opening episode where she deceived the gang and went shopping behind their backs. She tries to cover her tracks by reformatting the reception computer.

She feigns ignorance with Vilma who nonchalantly shrugs it off, claiming there’s a back-up. Uh oh. That’s a big blow for Catarina who realizes this could show evidence of her stealing.

Does Conrado return to the island?

He does, yes! Conrado returns and he’s back working again. He’s managed to get in the right head-space. He’s spoken to his parents and things seem to be on the up, especially as he’s realized this island is his real home.

What happens between Miguel and Yasmin?

Miguel is not in the right head-space though as we know and eventually hashes out his issues with Yasmin. He calls her out for cheating but Yasmin tries to explain everything.

It falls on deaf ears though as Miguel mentions he’s losing his dad to Parkinson’s. Since he’s had all his meds stolen, and seeing Yasmin cheating on him, it resulted in a big panic attack that he’s still suffering the after-effects from. Off the back of this, he decides to call things off with Yasmin.

Heading home, he finds his dad sitting out on the rocks with a kite. He indirectly gives some words of advice, using a mayfly analogy to basically show that life is short and we should seize every opportunity given to us. Realizing he needs to resolve his issues with Yasmin, Miguel heads back to see the gang.

Does Catarina reveal the truth?

Unfortunately, drama soon ensues when Paula arrives with big news. She’s traced the IP address back to this hotel. Someone inside has stolen her gear. As she grills Vilma about the cowboys working for her, with a slight hint of racism bleeding through, Catarina packs up her gear and high-tails it away from the island.

The police have been called and that poses a particularly big problem. When Catarina receives a message from Helena about the hotel coming under fire, she heads back and admits the truth. She was the one who made the purchases.

While Catarina is called in for questioning, Maresia confronts Vilma about the DNA test she did behind her back. Holding the slip of paper, Yasmin sees the pair together and immediately believes he’s gone behind her back. There’s an awful lot of these misunderstandings in this show aren’t there?

Catarina admits to the stealing and tries to rationale it by claiming that the rich don’t notice a small amount from being taken from their accounts. Even an amount like 10,000.

One of the main reasons she did this was in relation to her mum, and we see her drop off an envelope to her uncle in a past flashback. I guess we’re led to believe this is actually money.

Anyway, Catarina apologizes to Rodrigo and Diego, eventually leaving in handcuffs with the officers. As she’s taken away, Diego stops her and demands to know why. She coughs up a “sorry” but doesn’t divulge much more, leaving him to stew.

Is Maresia really Yasmin’s father?

So what’s on the DNA test results? Well, Maresia hasn’t even opened the envelope and hands it over to Yasmin, telling her that what she does with it is entirely up to her. She stuffs it in her bag and takes off.

Unfortunately this also means Miguel misses his chance to get back and see his lover, who takes one last look at the island before sitting by the shore.

On her own, she contemplates whether to open the envelope or not. Eventually she does, and in doing so heads back inside to see the others.

We don’t actually see what’s on the envelope but given she was adamant about leaving, it would appear that the results confirm that Maresia is her dad. Given this was her big motivation for coming to the island in the first place, it makes sense it’s also the reason she’s staying.

How does Summer Heat season 1 end?

As the episode closes out, Rodrigo decides to prove himself and is hired as the manage of the hotel. With Elias on the verge of destroying this sanctuary for the lost and those cast adrift, everyone bands together and decide to fight back against the system. But is Rodrigo really on their side?

Diego decides to leave and head back to Santiago while Catarina leaves them all a message, apologizing for her mistakes and admitting she’s had the best summer of her life.

The Episode Review

So Summer Heat bows out with a conclusive chapter that doesn’t really wrap up very much. This is ultimately a bait for season 2 which sees very little actually resolved.

Conrado just rocks back up with very little fanfare and everyone is absolutely fine with it. We see no conclusion to this angle involving Miguel while Yasmin is left in limbo and we’re not given many answers to whether she’s really Maresia’s daughter or not.

Meanwhile, we don’t actually get to see  who robbed Miguel (unless I missed that completely!) while there’s very little depth and growth for anyone in this show. The best example of this comes from Catarina who begins as a spoilt, rich girl who’s a bit of an opportunist with an addiction to shopping. By the end, she’s still a spoilt girl and still stealing with a shopping addiction.

There are some nice moments to this show though, namely that involving Helena and Marilia who do have nice, conclusive arcs here after the drama they’ve been through.

Unfortunately that’s not enough to help raise this above mediocrity in what’s otherwise been a pretty disappointing series. If this is renewed for another round of drama, let’s hop the writing improves because despite the beautiful landscape, this show settles in a murky shade of grey.