What an ending to City of God: The Fight Rages On Season 1. The follow-up series to the 2002 Brazilian classic movie takes us back to the City of God community in Rio de Janeiro, delving deeper into the dynamics and inner workings of the slums in the city, and how they are now in danger as a new enemy rises in the shape of the militias. After the devastating loss of community leader Stringy (Edson Oliveira) in the crossfire between Bradock’s (Thiago Martins) and Reginaldo’s (Kiko Marques), the finale sees those two sides meeting unexpected ends. What does all that mean for the future, though?
Rocket and Lígia Expose a Larger Enemy Circling the Community
Life isn’t easy in the City of God, but it was about to get a lot more difficult. Since Lígia (Eli Pereira) arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) has been able to do more than just report on black people dying in the community as victims of the police. Instead, he started turning the lens of his camera on the state government, especially Secretary of Public Security Reginaldo (Kiko Marques). Lígia started investigating the Mining Police’s (an embryo of the current militias that plague Rio) activity in Gardênia Azul, a neighboring community of the City of God.
Now, they have finally put the pieces of this puzzle together. As it turns out, Reginaldo has been illegally providing guns for the factions in the City of God since the 1970s. His plan was to let this war drag on for as long as possible until they killed each other, allowing the militias to take over. Bradock had already killed the previous faction leader, Curió (Marcos Palmeira), so, now, his fight is against the state police. Reginaldo’s forces seriously crippled Bradock’s, and public opinion is soaring in his favor at an important moment, when his son, Israel (Rafael Lozano), is after a seat on City Council.
Rocket and Lígia frustrate these plans with their newspaper piece, though, exposing Reginaldo’s scheme and revealing the true intentions of the state police’s operations in the City of God. Reginaldo has been involved with the militia from the start, and it turns out that one of his capos is Touro (Otávio Linhares), the militia leader at Gardênia Azul who circled Lígia and her reporting piece all season. On Reginaldo’s orders, Touro shoots Rocket’s car just as he is driving Lígia to the airport. Touro kills her, but Rocket survives. Now, the question is whether he will be more cautious or engaged in his fight against the militia in Season 3.
Jerusa Turns Out To Be the Key to All the Mess in the City of God
The most important finding in Rocket and Lígia’s investigation, however, turns out to be Jerusa (Andreia Horta). She has been a double agent for both the state police and Bradock’s faction all season, and her true allegiance has been a mystery, as has been her motivation. As the two journalists discover, it’s revenge. Her father was once a mule for Curió, smuggling drugs from Paraguay into Rio. One day, he was caught by the federal police, and Curió let him be arrested. Her siding with Reginaldo and dating Israel is just a means to her end of getting revenge against all of Curió and everyone in his gang.
Jerusa has been hiding in plain sight from the very beginning, playing Reginaldo and Israel’s game to her own benefit. The three of them act together to get Bradock released from prison in the series premiere, because they knew Bradock wouldn’t like knowing that he lost his post as second-in-command to Curió’s son, Geninho (Victor Andrade), and that would lead to a split within the community. Bradock grew up as a surrogate son of Curió, but his mercurial temper sent him in a downward spiral that culminated in him killing Curió and taking over control of crime in the City of God. Weakened by the conflict, Bradock is now easy prey for Reginaldo and the state police, who want to destroy the factions, so the militias can take over.
As part of this plan, Jerusa posed as Bradock’s girlfriend, picking him up from prison and influencing him to fight Curió. So, she has already ensured Curió’s downfall, but Rocket and Lígia’s piece on Reginaldo frustrates her plans. The exposure of her relationship with Israel means that Bradock can’t be left alive, otherwise she’s the one who dies, but Israel and Reginaldo shun her completely. Like her father, she has been left for dead, but she still has cards to play. She tells Israel that they are on their own, and, before confronting Bradock, she gets Geninho, who has been MIA since Curió’s execution, to help her. Together, the two of them kill Bradock, and, now, another power vacuum settles on the City of God.
Things Will Change in ‘City of God: The Fight Rages On’ in Season 2
Stringy’s death in Episode 5 is deeply felt by all in the City of God. He was Rocket’s best friend from childhood, but everyone in the community knew they could count on him for everything. When he died, the slums in Rio lost an honored defender, but Berenice (Roberta Rodrigues) rises to the occasion and takes his place in the upcoming elections. With just two weeks to prepare, she makes a huge effort, and, despite Bradock’s chagrin, manages to be elected as the ninth candidate to City Council with the most votes.
In the final speech of her campaign, Berenice uses an interesting expression: “Slums means strength.” (“Favela é potência,” in the original Portuguese) Although City of God: The Fight Rages On is set in 2004, this quote by Berenice actually comes from the 2010s, when the federal government ordered a military intervention in the slums of Rio, under the pretext of promoting law and order. An old-fashioned and rather ineffective way of tackling the issue of public security, the residents of communities in the suburbs started using this quote as their motto, referring to all the potential hidden in the slums that public officers in general insist on killing instead of promoting. This is the core of Berenice’s brief, yet successful campaign.
When Lígia is killed by Touro inside Rocket’s car, Berenice is celebrating her election, unaware of what happened to her friends. On the other side of town, Israel is celebrating his new tenure as city councilman, while Reginaldo stares at him with jealousy, fully aware of the blood spilled in the City of God at that exact moment. Bradock’s death and Reginaldo’s downfall mean that a new power vacuum is formed, something that Season 2 will have to address. Geninho and Jerusa are likely to be the ones to rise to control, but Reginaldo and the militias aren’t the kind of people who let things slide. As a councilwoman, Berenice will have her work cut out for her, attempting to deal with this new crime leadership while the militia tries to infiltrate the community again. But she is no doubt capable of taking on both of them. As she says at the beginning of the finale, “hustlers don’t stop” (“malandro não para” in Portuguese).
Season 1 of City of God: The Fight Rages On is available to stream exclusively on Max.
WATCH ON MAX