‘The Paramedic’ is a Netflix thriller that manages to keep the audience engaged by violence as a tool to amp up the tense elements of the story. If you’ve watched the film and are looking for some answers explaining its somewhat ambiguous ending, continue reading!
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The Paramedic: Plot Summary
The story revolves around our protagonist, a man named Angel (Mario Casas), who is an EMT worker. Even though his job literally requires him to be kind and help those in need, it becomes clear that he has no compassion towards anyone, not even his girlfriend. Her name is Vane (Deborah Francois), and he consistently manipulates her by making her do everything he wants her to. At work, he steals the belongings of accident victims and sells them to make some extra coins. He learns that he is infertile and as his insecurities grow, he starts speculating that Vane is probably cheating on him with her new classmate.
His sociopathic tendencies really start to show when he paralysed below his waist after an accident. He gets desperate and hacks Vane’s phone to keep track of all the places she visits. Vane soon discovers what he’s doing, and she leaves him for one of Angel’s former co-workers, Ricardo. After recovering from all the misery and the pain, he decides to get back to his ex-girlfriend. The deeper he delves into his pursuits of seeking revenge, the dogged his motives become.
The Ending
Image Source: Netflix
Despite his lack of morals, it’s almost ironic how our protagonist in ‘The Paramedic’ goes by the name Angel. It is evident that even though Angel’s job is technically being a lifesaver, he does it only fulfil his neurotic tendencies. While his co-workers try their best to help those in need, he sneaks around and grabs anything that would fetch him some money. When he’s with his girlfriend, one can quickly tell that he’s a narcissist. Initially, even Vane can see that something about him is completely off. Fortunately, she leaves him just in time.
Resolved to get her back, Angel lures Vane back home by telling her that he has all her stuff packed away and ready in a box. But as soon she starts picking up her stuff, he jabs her with a sedative. He then imprisons her in his home. Soon enough, he realises that Vane can easily outrun him as he uses a wheelchair. To deal with this problem, he shrewdly injects her with epidural anaesthesia, that he smuggled from the hospital.
Image Source: Netflix
Angel first kills his neighbour’s dog, and then his elderly neighbour, who threatens him saying that he’ll report him to the police. Then he kills Vane’s present boyfriend, Ricardo, by drugging him so that it looks like he overdosed.
Despite being in a wheelchair, Vane does not give up because she’s pregnant with Ricardo’s child and plots an escape plan. She heads to the washroom and slips in a nail-cutter while pretending to take a bath. As soon as Angel leaves, she uses the nail cutter to free herself from the ropes that tie her to the bed. By using a screwdriver, she scrapes off the frame of the door and drags herself out by using her hands.
During the climax, Angel shows up and tries to catch her, but he fails after Vane pushes him down the stairwell. The last scene shows Angel lying in the hospital paralysed up to his neck, as Vane shows up and takes him home, saying that she’ll take ‘good care’ of him.
What Will Vane Do To Angel?
Vane does not take him back home, simply because she sympathises with him. She does so because she realises that he has already gotten what he deserved. As ‘The Paramedic’ ends, Jane seeks her revenge after falling prey to Angel’s gruesome self-centred acts of violence herself.
And even before that, despite knowing how selfish he was, she held onto her relationship with him. Her revenge does not involve harming him in any way, but making him realise where his evil actions have lead him to. We don’t get to see what happens after Vane takes him home, but we do know that she’ll never fall as low as a neurotic and merciless sociopath.