 |
| The Buendia family show up to witness the final birth in the Buendia house |
100 Years of Solitude is back for season 2, which debuted on August 5, 2026. Adapted from the renowned magical realism novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, it covers the seven generations of the Buendia family in the town of Macondo. Episode 8 is broken into three parts and each part witnesses Aureliano Babilonia sharing residence with another family member. History repeats itself in this epic conclusion.
Find all of our recaps on the landing page.
The episode opens on the Buendia house. Things are looking rough and overgrown. But there's a strange beauty to it, as well. Ursula built this house in hopes that it would always be full of multiple generations of Buendias. Seeing it neglected and empty is a desolate sight indeed. The camera tracks through the house, offering a haunting real estate listing. House for sale. I'm lonely. Please live in me.
Up in her bedroom, Fernanda dances in a gown of white to records on her phonograph. She's the epitome of a woman untethered, locked in an attic. She remembers how Aureliano Segundo announced her queen of Madagascar. Meanwhile Aureliano Babilonia continues his studies of Melquaides' tomes. He's long ago learned to tune Fernanda out. He studies the works of Hermann the Cripple and the philosopher's stone. He learns what Nostradamus had to say. And he knows nothing of his current age but has the wisdom of a medieval man.
Aureliano Babilonia has inherited the ability to talk to Melquiades. Melquiades asks him what language the book is written in. This will unlock the key to the final reveal – the promise that the book will be translated in 100 years. Then he will discover his origin. Melquiades tells him to go to the wise Catalan's bookstore. He will find a Sanskrit primer between two books in a specific location.
Just then, Melquiades disappears and the sound of glass breaking rings out. Aureliano Babilonia goes to Fernanda and finds her with glass sticking out of her hand. He wraps it in a bandage and carries her back to bed. In her delirium, she talks to Aureliano Babilonia as if he is a suitor.
Part 1: Aureliano and Fernanda
With her knocked out, Aureliano Babilonia takes the opportunity to go through the correspondence on her desk, hoping to find something about Amaranta Ursula. He finds a picture and some letters from her. Fernanda catches him, but he manages to sneak a letter into his room. He is thrilled to discover that she mentions him in the letter as someone she misses. She reports that she's doing well in Belgium.
Every Wednesday, Aureliano Babilonia goes outside and finds a basket of food. The narrator tells us that this abundance comes from Petra Cotes, keeping her promise to care for Babilonia. He does all the cooking and serving and never gets any thanks. She talks about him to herself and calls him bastard and dirty rat.
Babilonia decides to ask permission to go out of the house so that he can fulfill his obligation to Melquiades. He gives himself a haircut and shave and puts on the suit of Colonel Aureliano Buendia, not realizing who it belonged to. When he goes to talk to Fernanda, she doesn't recognize him and starts babbling in fear. She thinks he might be the colonel, coming back to haunt her. Fernanda wears a paper crown and fur coat. A white bandage is on her hand – a virtuous mirror of Amaranta.
He asks to go out to the bookshop and promises no one will know who he is. But he doesn't realize that his Buendia-ness is unmistakable. She continues to write letters to Jose Arcadio II that promises they will bask in riches together.
Babilonia decides to go out anyway. He realizes he could have left at any time, but he was too scared and unsure about the outside world. He only has the courage now because there is a quest to fulfill. He steps outside and walks 11 blocks. Nothing seems that interesting. I was hoping he might see Pilar, but no one really notices him until he enters the bookshop.
They think he's drunk and dressed in costume for carnival. He finds the books exactly where Melquiades said they would be. The bookseller pronounces him crazy. He pays in gold coins. There are several men in the shop. The last one almost looks like a Buendia. He walks home and is taunted and attacked by some young hooligans in masks. They mock him for dressing in the colonel's attire. They grab the books and begin to rip the pages. They find some of the gold fish in his pockets and think he is a liar.
He wakes up to find a voluptuous Black woman tending his wounds in her underwear. She allows him to rest unbothered. Aureliano wakes up and thanks the man sitting on the porch of the house he has been staying in. The man says to thank his granddaughter who found him on the street and took him in. As a gesture of gratitude, Babilonia gives the man a gold fish. The man instantly recognizes the fish as the sign of a Buendia but doesn't say who he is.
Aureliano Babilonia arrives home to find creepy crawlies all over the floors and the food. He enters Fernanda's room and finds her dead. In the 18 hours he was gone, she has passed from the earthly realm. Whether from lack of food or old age we will never know.
In any case, Babilonia takes the opportunity to scavenge through more of the letters from Amaranta Ursula. She mentions Babilonia in every letter, even though she refers to him as cannibal caveman. A knock on the door announces a new arrival, and a new chapter has begun.
 |
| The cinema is no longer in business but the debaters hang out there |
Part 2: Aureliano and Jose Arcadio
The pope himself has finally returned home – Jose Arcadio II in the flesh. He immediately begins to order Aureliano about, treating him like a servant. He finds his mother dead but well preserved. Aureliano has vaporized mercury to preserve her body so well, she has lasted 4 months.
Jose Arcadio asks to be alone with her. He conducts a ceremony to bury her with prayers in Latin. Afterwards, he adds one shovel of dirt before commanding Babilonia to fill the rest of the hole. He mentioned what time he expects breakfast.
The next morning he complains about the eggs and the juice, ordering a redo and freshly squeezed juice. Babilonia is done taking orders, however. He tells Jose Arcadio exactly what he thinks about him. He quickly makes the point that he can speak 4 languages, including Latin. So insulting him in a language he can't understand will be impossible. All of that study has paid off with the look on Jose Arcadio's face.
We quickly find out the reason Jose Arcadio has returned home. He does not come to mourn for mama. Instead, he searches the house for the gold Fernanda wrote about in her letters. Ursula did have gold, but is any left?
Then, the biggest needle drop surprise of the show lands with David Bowie's "Let's Dance." Jose Arcadio changes from a pious pope-in-training to a flaming fashionista, converting his robe into a cape. He loosens the collar and struts around the house, gathering items of value he might be able to sell. He never stayed at school. He just let mama believe that to get the promised treasure.
As it turns out, the statues of saints always terrified Jose Arcadio. He drinks wine and smashes the statues, asking Babilonia to join in. Babilonia is worried about them only having booze and candy. Jose Arcadio decides to sell some fish. Babilonia relents and shares in the enjoyment of destroying Fernanda's treasures in the flames. It's at least the second time there has been a ceremonial burning in the courtyard of the Buendia house – Amaranta started the first.
Speaking of Amaranta, Jose Arcadio remembers her fondly, how she counted the spots on his skin. Babilonia longs for his own Amaranta. Jose Arcadio has never met his estranged sister. The two men form a kind of bond.
They go out, looking for food and sustenance. No one seems to remember their family. They come to a nearby tavern called The Golden Child. Inside is a pleasure garden of Afro-Cuban women. The music creates a tone of vintage kitsch and tiki vibes, but this is revealing of an unfortunate truth. It's a brothel of women who were born of the results of colonization and class systems in Macondo. They are living proof of a town abandoned – the outsiders who came in during the banana boom. With no profits left and many workers missing or dead, these women of Black descent have been left behind with no reputable means of sustaining a livelihood other than this. Macondo was sucked dry of its bananas and left to fend for itself.
But we do receive one nice surprise. Pilar crosses paths once again with the Buendias. She recognizes each of them and knows what name they bear. She also knows why they are there. They are in love and need to forget. She calls for a girl names Nigromanta. This is the same kind woman who rescued Babilonia when he was left on the street. We also meet one of the men who Babilonia saw at the bookshop. His name is Gabriel Garcia – the author of the book has written himself into this story.
They dance the night away. The Golden Child has tethered birds as a decoration, so that they make shadows on the dance floor. The dancing leads to a round of partying. Jose Arcadio meets a group of four boys who become his playmates. They spend their days drinking and playing the day away. The house turns into a equivalent of a frat house. No one cleans. They just play and get fat on the little excess there is left. Jose Arcadio is following in the footsteps of Uncle Aureliano Segundo.
Meanwhile Babilonia spends more time with the men he met in the bookstore. They call themselves debaters: Alvaro, German, Alfonso, and Gabriel. They are the equivalent of a men's social club, who consider themselves intellectuals. We discover that Gabriel is the grandson of Gerineldo, the colonel's old buddy.
The sky is any eerie shade of yellow as Babilonia comes home to find Jose Arcadio II in the bathtub with his playmates. He mentions he found the gold coins after all, under Mama Ursula's bed. The frat boys clear out, and Babilonia realizes these are the men who jumped him. He warns Jose Arcadio that they can't be trusted, but to no avail.
Babilonia awakes to hear loud noises and the playthings exploring the workshop of Melquaides. As they reach for the book, a force pushes them back. Jose Arcadio goes upstairs to find the young men piled in his mother's bed. He gets enraged and kicks them out all out, using a whip as a tool of enforcement. He feels a great shame for himself and asks Babilonia to go out and get salt for his asthma and rum for his mood.
He returns to find Jose Arcadio dead in the bathtub. We are shown that the men came back and entered through the ceiling of the bathroom to get revenge. They drowned him in his own tub. The mention that he is drowned in a military operation, alluding to the dream that Aureliano had as a young boy.
Babilonia is alone once more, and he drinks himself to sleep. He had grown to love Jose Arcadio in his own way.
 |
| Margarita Rosa de Francisco as FERNANDA |
Part 3: Aureliano and Amaranta Ursula
He wakes to find Amaranta Ursula cleaning the house in her pajamas. His Amaranta has returned once more. She calls him little cannibal, and they laugh and dance.
Amaranta has prepared lunch for them. This must be odd for Babilonia, who has never been served in his own home. She asks about her brother, and he tells her that he was sad and lived in the past. He says he was like Aureliano Segundo. As it happens, Amaranta has brought a guest home – a French lover named Gaston. He plans to start an airmail service in Macondo. Another colonizer or gringo has come. Amaranta Ursula says that Babilonia is like her brother.
Babilonia retreats back to his workshop. He was not expecting another uninvited houseguest. And it doesn't help that that Amaranta and Gaston have very loud sex all the time. They fight and make up passionately. The main thing they fight about is how much Amaranta loves the Buendia house and Macondo. Amaranta also has Ursula's blood in her. She organizes and tidies the house. She brings in workers to renovate the house. She applies organic substances to kill the ants.
Speaking of ants, Gaston is a collector of insects. He is cataloging all of the creepy crawlies of Macondo. Amaranta wants three kids who won't be named any of the Buendia names, showing a preference for European ways.
Amaranta does come to visit Babilonia to bring him food in the workshop and complains about howmuch he is working. To escape his jealousy and the invasion of his home, Babilonia goes to conjoin with Nigromanta, who helps him lose his virginity. She is surprised to find he is a virile lover that her body has to adjust to.
The next time he wants to get out of the house, he goes back to the Golden Child to find a funeral happening for Pilar. She died in her wicker rocking chair. The people of the Golden Child are truly sad to have their "mother" no longer there. The Golden Child is closing.
Gabriel tells Babilonia he is moving to Paris. He asks to be mailed Reynard the Fox and The Song of Roland. His friend has gone. While in the kitchen, Amaranta cuts herself trying to open a can. He tends her wound and takes the opportunity to tell her that he dreams of being with her so that she can whisper Gaston in his ear. She is horrified and says she is leaving.
While Amaranta is in the bathtub, she looks up at the rickety ceiling where people have come and gone. She comes out of the bathroom in her robe. She leaves the door slightly ajar. She turns around with her robe untied. This would be confusing. Does she want something to happen or not? Babilonia takes a chance and grabs her, throwing her onto the bed. After tussling around like lively puppies, they end up making love. She's being a real Amaranta here.
Gaston waits at the train station and realizes it's not going to stop. He jumps on board. Babilonia and Amaranta are left to enjoy each other, running around naked like Adam and Eve. The red ants make it hard to sleep, but they are full of joy.
Amaranta shares the news that they are having a baby. She remembers the words of Ursula. That they cannot marry each other. Babilonia thinks it will be fine because he arrived in a basket. He goes to visit the priest, hoping to find his true parentage, but the priest tells him that all of those records were destroyed by rats. He sees a chilling vision of Prudencio and hears voices from the past.
He mentions his name is Buendia, and the man assures him it's fine. That he was probably named after a street. This man has never known the Buendias. Babilonia recites his family's lineage. The new Amaranta is knitting. They have decided to accept the basket story.
 |
| Aureliano Babilonia sees Jose Arcadio Buendia at the end |
Her water breaks, and the baby is coming. The two of them have no idea what to do. As the birth process begins, we see a group of Buendias all gathered in the courtyard – each of them the age (except Rebeca) of how old they were when they died.
Amaranta gives birth, and the Buendias walk away. The baby is born, and Babilonia notices a tiny pig's tail. They hold their son, and Amaranta calls him a cannibal caveman. She tries to name him Rodrigo, but Babilonia says he will be Aureliano. He walks away to let her rest. Blood is covering the whole lower half of her body. She assures him she won't die. He places little Baby Aureliano in a basket.
Yet Amaranta does die. The baby also stops crying. Babilonia goes to the abandoned Golden Child and drinks miserably. He looks inside the basket and finds only rocks. Babilonia walks home as a great hurricane rages on. The final keys were revealed to Aureliano Babilonia. The first of the line is tied to the tree and the last is being eaten by ants. Ants have eaten this baby.
Babilonia begins to read the book of his history. He is able to read them with no effort whatsoever. The show ends on the same scene it began. He would never leave this room. "Because lineages condemned to 100 years of solitude were not granted a second opportunity on Earth."
The family was unable to break their curse after repeated attempts. So there will never be redemption. Babilonia will never leave this room. He will exist only in the pages of Melquaides' book or when a reader or viewer begins the story. But further, the story is an ouroboros. It begins where it ends, with Babilonia discovering he is doomed and has always been doomed. He's always been in this room, reading about his own fate.
Macondo began because Jose Arcadio Buendia was bold enough to leave his hometown. He and Ursula also ignored all warnings that their marriage would be cursed. The town was only founded because of pride and a feeling that they knew better. The Buendia family has continued to follow that pattern. Their aspirations inevitably lead to their seclusion and isolation.
Comments