When La casa de las flores returns for its second season this fall there’ll be one glaring absence. The Mexican family tragicomedy was centered around its matriarch, Virginia de la Mora, who had to grapple with the very public suicide of her husband’s mistress, all the while trying to keep her family and flower business afloat. Played by telenovela royalty Veronica Castro, Virginia was a change of pace for the actress. But no matter how much audiences enjoyed seeing Castro smoke a joint and share the screen with drag queens, it seems Castro was not too happy veering so far from her telenovela roots. In the last episode of the show’s hit first season, we saw Virginia drive away from her family — a hint that maybe the show would have to go on without the actress and character alike.
But as the marketing for the show’s second season is making clear, her absence will be more final than any of us would have imagined. On social media, the returning cast members — breakout star Cecilia Suarez, Dario Yazbek Bernal (Gael Garcia Bernal’s half brother), Aislinn Derbez and Paco León — have shared posts that unequivocally make Virginia’s death a done deal. With images from a funeral, a video obituary, and a hashtag to go along with it (#QDEPvirginiadelamora aka RIP Virginia de la Mora), it seems Manolo Caro’s show’s future seasons will be Virginia-less.
How her death will factor into the show’s other cliffhanger, which involved a spurned lover fleecing Virginia de la Mora of her family’s fortune, is still up in the air. But while we wait for a full-length trailer, Netflix has released an updated credits sequence as well as a premiere date. Styled yet again after a family portrait (by artist Roberta Lobeira), the credits show a surrealist take on the de la Mora family: Suarez’s Paulina, for example, has pills inside her chest and a galaxy melting on her head. Yazbek Bernal’s Julian has a speared heart and a mouth gag with the word “lust” over it as he lords over a puppet image of his silver fox ex Diego (Juan Pablo Medina). Oh, and in case we missed it, a message scrawled on the wall (“La vida después de ti”) suggests Virginia’s death will truly be front and center when the show returns on October 18. It also announces an addition to the cast: Mariana Treviño (Club de Cuervos). Take a look at the full video below and start counting the days until Paulina’s signature droll delivery will brighten your days once again.
La casa de las flores season 2 hits Netflix on October 18, 2019.