Breaking Down the Twisty Ending of Netflix's Drama Delirium

Time​ Magazine

2 hours ago

On a quiet day in Bogotá in the early 1980s, university professor Fernando Aguilar (Juan Pablo Raba) returns from a short trip to find his wife, Agustina Londoño (Estefanía Piñeres), in the midst of a psychotic break. She's barricaded in a hotel room, disoriented and terrified, unable to explain what happened during the days he was away. There are no signs of violence, no visible trauma—only the disquieting certainty that something has shattered inside her. What begins as a psychiatric emergency soon unravels into a haunting exploration of family secrets, generational silence, and the blurred lines between madness and memory.
This is the premise of Delirium, a Netflix psychological drama inspired by the internationally acclaimed novel Delirio by Colombian author Laura Restrepo. The eight-episode series, premiering July 18, unfolds against the backdrop of a politically turbulent Colombia. Delirium is both intimate and expansive—an unflinching look at mental illness, social hypocrisy, and the heavy burden of our unspoken traumas.
According to showrunners Verónica Triana and Andrés Burgos, working on a period story offered a powerful opportunity to reflect on the present. 'Depicting how mental illness was addressed just over 40 years ago not only created moments rich in drama, but also serves as a clear contrast to highlight how far we've come—and how far we still have to go,' they tell TIME. 'Trauma, mental illness, and family secrets are universal themes that have always concerned our society. But today, we are beginning to name these illnesses, to understand them, and to ask for help when we need it.'
Let's break down the major plot lines in Delirium.
Madness in the Londoño family
By Episode 6 of Delirium, Aguilar is still trying to understand what happened to his wife in a desperate bid to help her. His wife's aunt, Sofía—who arrived after receiving a call from Agustina saying she wasn't well—shares a story that spans generations of the Londoño family. Sofía is the sister of Agustina's mother, Eugenia, and they both grew up on the family's hacienda. As children, Eugenia and Sofía's father, Nicolás, began hearing strange noises and asked if anyone else heard them. 'Like a toothless old woman whispering in one ear, and in the other, a chair being dragged down the corridor,' he said. His wife, Blanca, attributed the sounds to tinnitus—a ringing in the ears—but Nicolás knew it was something else. As a pianist, he needed silence to compose and think, and he could only find that underwater.
The next day, Eugenia told her father she had heard the sounds too. He simply replied: 'One day we're all going to die and stop hearing any sound.' Not long after, Blanca, the daughters, and Abel—Nicolás' piano student and secret lover—found his lifeless body in the farm's lake. Blanca forced her daughters to lie, saying their father had returned to France. From that point on, Eugenia began to lie compulsively, to the point of losing track of what was real. 'My father committed suicide. And we never spoke of it. And over time I understood what his relationship with Abel really was,' Sofía tells Aguilar.
Delirium suggests that madness is in the Londoño blood. In a flashback in Episode 1, young Agustina gets her first period, and her mother warns her to stay away from men. 'And also be very careful with those tickles down there. I don't want you becoming like Aunt Ilse, my father's sister,' says Eugenia. Agustina asks if she's the aunt 'who went crazy.' Her mother responds yes: 'She didn't obey her parents and kept scratching herself all the time, in front of everyone. They had to tie her up and send her to an asylum. Madness enters from there. You don't know what has happened in this family,' Eugenia implies, linking sexuality with mental illness.
The mental anguish in the family does not end there. Since childhood, Agustina has seen insects crawling on her skin that aren't really there. Her brother, Carlos Vicente Jr. (nicknamed Bichi), was beaten by their father for dressing like a girl, and Agustina believed she could heal his physical wounds. Though diagnoses and disorders are never mentioned by name, the series strongly implies that the Londoño family carries some hereditary mental disorder.
Midas' criminal scheme
The series flashes back to when Agustina was in school. Her brother Joaco became friends with Fredy Rodríguez—known as Midas—after he won a scholarship to the elite school Joaco attended. Midas and Agustina fall in love. As a teenager, Midas got involved with a trafficker and started a drug-smuggling and money-laundering operation targeting wealthy students. In early adulthood, he pitched an investment proposal to Joaco's father, joining him and other investors in the scheme.
Trouble arises when one shipment is seized in Florida. Despite setbacks, Midas urges investors to continue, but some partners grow suspicious. A violent incident involves Araña, a paraplegic partner, who kills Jenny, a stripper and friend of Midas, by strangulation during a sexual act meant to secure investments. Midas kills Araña after a confrontation fueled by accusations of betrayal.
The scheme unravels further when Midas and his partner Misterio—the trafficker Midas started working with in his teenage years—are ambushed by police; Misterio is killed and Midas escapes. Later, Joaco warns Midas that Jorge, another partner in the scheme, has turned him in, pushing Midas to go into hiding at the family farm. From here, the criminal plot becomes intertwined with Agustina's psychotic break.
What caused Agustina's psychotic break?
At the end of Episode 1, Aguilar returns from a trip with his children to find the house empty. Listening to a message on the answering machine, he learns Agustina is at the Hotel Wellington. In the background, he hears her screaming, 'He left me, f-ck him.' Before the trip, Aguilar explains to Agustina that he was traveling without her so he could better bond with his children, from his relationship with his ex, Marta. Initially, Agustina had thought she would be going with them. The truth behind her breakdown is revealed only in the final episode.
Agustina regains clarity and seeks out Aguilar at his ex-wife's home—the place he went after Agustina asked him to leave during her psychotic episode. She recounts what happened. After Aguilar left with the children, Agustina spent her time painting a wall until her mother called, inviting her to a birthday celebration at the family farm. Despite their tension, Agustina went. There, she overheard Eugenia speaking with Joaco about her unhappiness with Midas' presence at the party. But Joaco insists they need Midas; the business is failing without him. He also mentions that her son and Agustina's other brother, Carlos—named after his father—has come back demanding his share of the inheritance. Carlos had run away in his youth after being beaten for being 'too feminine' and reemerged years later following their father's death.
During the celebration, Agustina stands beside Midas while Joaco gives a speech praising their mother. He omits mention of Carlos and refers to Agustina as 'the special girl,' with a condescending tone. Agustina interrupts, saying that it was Aunt Sofía who cared for them, while their mother was busy with wine and pills. Their mother then introduces Joaco's girlfriend, Mariana, and says she wants grandchildren. At that point, Agustina reveals a trauma: she had become pregnant by Midas, but her mother forced her to terminate the pregnancy because he was not 'acceptable.'
Later, once married to Aguilar, she lost another baby. 'Since he [Midas] is not an entrepreneur but a trafficker, he is good for money but not to father my child,' she says. She also accuses her brother of hiding the existence of their other brother, Carlos, because he is gay, and points to Mariana as their mother's 'last hope.' The argument ends only when Joaco tells his sister, 'Thank God you never became a mother.' This sets off a psychotic break for Augustina. She sees insects crawling on her body and in the party food, hears voices mocking her, and believes everyone is laughing at her. Midas takes her to the Hotel Wellington, but since he is on the run, he can't stay, so he leaves a henchman in charge of calling Aguilar so he can come pick her up.
How does Delirium end?
After learning the truth, Agustina tells her husband he can talk to Midas, who is hiding at his mother's house. Aguilar finds him hooded, leaving a market with fruits and vegetables. Noticing he is being followed, Midas turns and asks about Agustina. Aguilar replies, 'Today she is better.' Midas is relieved and asks if Aguilar needs anything. Aguilar declines. Midas asks him to take care of Agustina, then disappears.
Back at home, Aguilar smiles at Agustina. The couple kisses and, for a moment, peace seems restored. But now Aguilar knows: Agustina is flawed—'not perfect'—with broken pieces, as she narrates in the closing moments of the series.
'The process of preparing Agustina's character was led by directors Julio Jorquera and Rafael Martínez. Julio was very wise in pointing out that madness is not something one can rehearse, which threw all the team—especially Estefanía—into a kind of vertigo and delirium that felt necessary for this production. The idea was to discover and surprise ourselves throughout the process, something that's not easy to achieve within a production system where efficiency is valued just as much as content,' the showrunners say. 'It wasn't easy for her. But I believe that arriving on set without a fixed plan allowed for the spontaneity we were seeking. Letting go of preconceived ideas about what madness is or how it should be portrayed was key for all of us.'