Episode 6 of *The Dead Girls* unfolds in January 1964 with Serafina exacting her vengeance on Simon. The case lands squarely on the shoulders of Inspector Cueto, a local lawman and ally of the Baladro family. Here’s how the unraveling begins:
Bound by loyalty, Cueto secretly alerts Bedoya, who promptly warns the sisters. Though Arcangela bristles at Serafina’s recklessness, they hastily evacuate the casino and retreat to their ranch hideout. Serafina silences a nosy neighbor with a bribe—and a veiled threat. Yet fate catches up: she’s sentenced to seven years in prison for aiding the sisters’ escape.
Meanwhile, their lawyer, Rendón, vanishes without a trace, leaving the girls trapped in a freezing barn. The injured Rosa succumbs to the cold, and they bury her in a somber grave on the ranch grounds.
When Cueto arrives at the ranch, the sisters lavish him with a staggering bribe to stay silent about the bakery arson. But the sum is so exorbitant that it arouses his suspicion. Digging deeper, Cueto uncovers the grisly remains of Blanca’s murdered companions hidden in the casino. Murder, it seems, is a line even he won’t cross.
The sisters, still locked in the barn, are arrested. Under interrogation, they turn on one another, implicating Skull, Serafina, Arcangela, Bedoya, Nicolás, and Ladder, their driver. Arcangela clings to the delusion that Rendón will engineer their freedom, but the camera cuts to him meticulously erasing any trace of his involvement.
In a twist of misplaced loyalty, Ticho surrenders himself to authorities. Elsewhere, Eulalia and Teofilo are apprehended after using their real names at a train station, sealing their fates.
The net tightens, leaving no escape for the survivors of this dark, tangled web.The sisters vehemently assert their innocence. However, the girls secure their freedom by testifying against the sisters, detailing the horrific beatings, the relentless starvation, and the coercive tactics employed. Meanwhile, the gruesome discovery of dead bodies on the ranch sends shockwaves through the community.
The media, hungry for sensationalism, quickly labels the sisters as serial killers, distorting the truth with exaggerated claims. The situation is further complicated when the girls begin to weave false testimonies into their accounts, muddying the waters of what truly transpired. Even Teofilo succumbs to the pressure, lying to protect himself. The girls also turn their accusations towards Skull, accusing her of the murders of Blanca and Rosa.
Enraged by the betrayal, the sisters lash out at the girls, their insults doing nothing to endear them to the court. Next, Simon is brought in to testify about the dead girl from 1960. But he is confined with Baladros’ henchmen, who stab him in the dead of night as Serafina watches with a malevolent smirk.
The Alarma newspaper fans the flames of controversy, printing shocking photos of the crime scenes and spreading baseless rumors. The case quickly gains international attention, spawning a flurry of merchandise and posters. Even the sisters’ public defender, seemingly indifferent to their plight, demands the death sentence and turns a blind eye when the Baladros’ properties are seized.
In an interview, Judge Peralta concedes that The Alarma manipulated the truth, yet acknowledges that no one intervened to stop them. Amidst the public outcry, the confluence of genuine and fabricated testimonies leads to lengthy prison sentences for Serafina, Arcangela, Eulalia, Skull, Bedoya, Ladder, Nicolas, Ticho, Simon, and Teofilo.
The freed girls are compensated with money. With the sensationalism fading, the reporters gradually depart, leaving behind a trail of unanswered questions. In a candid interview, Chucho, a reporter from The Alarma, admits to overstepping boundaries in his reporting. However, he justifies his actions as necessary to prevent the country from turning a blind eye to the rampant prostitution and corruption. He had hoped to prolong his paper's success by interviewing the convicts, but found them uninteresting and eventually abandoned the endeavor.
In the epilogue, we witness Simon's release from prison, his sentence finally served. Yet, the perpetrators of his stabbing remain at large. Nicolas finds solace in cobbling shoes, while Ticho takes up a job as a factory loader, still maintaining ties with the sisters. Ladder establishes his own taxi service, funded by Baladro's ill-gotten gains. Eulalia sets up a candy stand outside the prison, her husband still serving five more years.
Bedoya assumes control of his own prison gang, his influence extending even to the guards who fear him. The sisters, undeterred by their incarceration, delve into loan sharking, running a couple of businesses, and even acting as madams to some inmates. Skull remains loyal, continuing to work for them. The whereabouts of the freed girls remain a mystery.
A brief flashback to June 1960 reveals Maria, the stabbed girl, entertaining a client before he brutally ends her life.
Is "The Dead Girls" rooted in real-life events? As the episode draws to a close, the interviewer is seen piecing together the narrative. And who better to do so than Jorge Ibargüengoitia himself, the novelist whose work, *Las Muertas*, serves as the foundation for the show. He reveals that while certain elements of the story are grounded in reality, others are purely the product of his imagination.
In truth, Ibargüengoitia's novel draws its inspiration from the very real and notorious brothel madams—the four González sisters—and the mysterious, unexplained corpses discovered on their premises. These sisters presided over a sprawling prostitution empire, one that was ultimately linked to a staggering 91 deaths. Far from being women of means, it was their financial desperation that drove them into the world of prostitution. And it wasn't a scorned lover seeking vengeance that brought the sisters under the scrutiny of the law, but rather the arrest of a trafficker that set the authorities on their trail.
