Gomorrah 5, there is no hope among the criminals

Warning: this article contains spoilers.

Lto the fifth season of Gomorrah it is indefinable. Because it is many things at the same time: in some ways it is new, and it is evident; almost in parallel, however, he retraces the same steps of the very first episodes, when Genny was unsure, Ciro was his mentor and there were still Don Pietro and Donna Imma. The direction of Marco D’Amore is almost the glue: unites, holds together, does not insist, does not mortify any scene; he succeeds, because he manages, to take breaks and spaces, and to give each character his own moment (and in these two episodes there are many).

The most important line of the third and fourth episode, perhaps, is by Azzurra, played by Ivana Lotito; he says to Genny: you are like your father, you have become the person you have always hated. And he: no, don’t say it. But that’s right and that’s the absolute truth of Gomorrah – the series: nobody changes, not really; and those who say they are different lie to themselves and to others.

Genny (Salvatore Esposito) tries to regain control of his empire; uses any means, puts everyone against everyone, and returns to his kingdom, the door always open and guarded and a window on the murals of the neighborhood. He looks happy and satisfied. He has killed the Levantis, he has regained all the dealing squares, and now – he thinks – he is alone, apparently invincible. But in this fifth season, it’s not just the criminals: the police are finally here.

Walter Ruggieri, played by Gennaro Maresca, he is a magistrate with a slow and calm speech: he thinks he knows everything, that he has foreseen everything, and instead he has to change his mind and start from scratch. Continuously. Doing the right thing, and above all: respecting the law, is not that easy. Ruggieri, however, is only one of the thousand faces of this unexpected honesty. Grazia, sister of the Levante, played by Claudia Tranchese, betrothed to Munaciello (extraordinary character), decides to die. He does not want to survive his family and continue with the same existence of half-truths and uncertainties. Right at the end, before the end, regain control. You make me sick, he says to the Munaciello. Safety. Determined. And above all free.

In these two episodes, they also arrive new characters. One, ‘or Munaciello, we have already mentioned (played by Carmine Paternoster): small, silent, fond of the family, prone to generosity, but equal, in substance, to all the others. Condemned to a life that, perhaps, he never really wanted. Deeply tied to his neighborhood, more alert, more practical, ready to follow a new master to find, he hopes, a new freedom.

But there is also ‘o Galantommo, played by Antonio Ferrante: the latest representative of a provincial crime obsessed with the importance of one’s word and integrity in business. Elegant, fascinating, also very ferocious. Then, Sangue Blu (Arturo Muselli) returns, and returns because called by Ciro Di Marzio (Marco D’Amore). Their meeting is one of the most beautiful scenes of these episodes.

In short, the pieces on the board are ready. The final game is about to begin. There are no more rivals; there are only old friends. Ciro says: I have never changed, I am always the same; I’m a guaglion is halfway there. Like Genny, he too has never grown up and has never abandoned – not really, not for long – the criminal dimension.

From the periphery to the center and from the center, again, to the periphery: it is a network that tightens and sometimes strangles these characters, which forces them to act and which offers no way of salvation. Maybe yes, the reason for the clash between Ciro and Genny is childish, even absurd. But is a life like this, a life of criminals and murderers, rational? It all comes down to feelings, to the very personal idea of ​​correctness. Genny and Ciro are ferocious animals ready to bite anyone. Their sight is limited. They only know extremes, black and white. They are forced into a very small space, and they don’t know what to do and how to start over. There is the gun and there is the iron fist. Power is everything. Revenge is the only possible justice. The truth, as we said, is always the same: you don’t change.