The Netflix film Tin & Tina is drawing plenty of questions from viewers with its ambiguous ending, in particular, needing to be explained.
*WARNING: Spoilers for Tin & Tina and topics such as miscarriage discussed ahead*
We’ve seen all manner of films arrive on Netflix in recent years as the streaming service has offered up a variety of content for its global audience but few of them are as perplexing as the Spanish psychological thriller, Tin & Tina.
The film is filled with religious and spiritual messages throughout, but the ending of Tin & Tina is especially ambiguous, which has left fans attempting to decipher its various meanings.
Tin & Tina release date and plot preview
Released in Spanish theaters on March 31, 2023, Tin & Tina has now been made available to fans globally on Netflix after being added to the streaming service’s library on May 26.
The film follows a young couple, Lola and Adolfo, who begin the film on the verge of getting married and starting a family as they’re expecting twins.
Lola has a miscarriage and is unable to conceive again.
Lola and Adolfo decide to adopt Tina and Tina twins from a convent nearby run by strict Catholic nuns in an attempt to get back on track.
But when Lola and Adolfo take their new children home, they quickly discover that Tin and Tina have an obsessive devotion to religion and the teachings of the bible and it isn’t long before strange and sinister events start to occur.
Tin & Tina’s ending explained
Tina and Tina encourage their mother, who lost her faith in God after her miscarriage at the beginning of the story, to renew it throughout the movie. They believe this will lead to a miraculous outcome.
Lola’s pregnancy after an encounter with Adolfo was a miracle.
But after becoming pregnant, Lola begins to shun her adoptive twins and forbids them from continuing their religious practices as their literal following of the bible’s teachings have resulted in the children killing the family dog and seriously hurting the school bully.
Lola’s mistrust of the children grows further and comes to a head when Tin & Tina make breakfast for her and she refuses to drink a glass of milk as she believes the twins have poisoned it when, in fact, they have simply mixed in some sugar to make it sweeter.
The twins are asking Lola when her baby will be baptized. She dismisses this idea immediately.
Tina and Tina decide to baptize their brother’s newborn when Lola is distracted. They dip him into the swimming pool and almost drown him.
Lola and Adolfo take their adopted children to the convent from which they were originally taken.
Bizarre events continue to happen, however, and on the night of a fierce thunderstorm, TV-addicted Adolfo ventures out to the roof of the couple’s house to fix the aerial and in a shocking turn of events, he is seemingly struck by lightning and set on fire.
In an effort to get Lola’s help, Adolfo stumbles back into the house but collapses onto the floor and dies which sets the whole building ablaze.
During the panic to retrieve her baby and get to safety, Lola experiences more strange events as she apparently hears Tin and Tina singing along to their favorite song in one of the rooms of the house but when she enters, they’re nowhere to be seen.
Neither, for that matter, is her baby as Lola can’t find her newborn son in the crib where she left him.
Lola, in a desperate moment, uses a pillowcase as a way of suffocating herself. Tina said that this was a good way to communicate with God, to ask for something, earlier in the movie. Lola is then able to hear her child crying, find him and run away.
Lola is nursed to health by Mother Asuncion in the hospital.
Lola questions her about Tina and Tina, and she says that they were asleep in the orphanage all night. Mother Asuncion does not mention that the nun watching the children fell asleep, and she could have possibly missed them if the children had sneaked out.
Mother Asuncion is adamant that Tin and Tina are innocent of any wrongdoing and Lola eventually agrees and in the final scene of the film, which takes place during Adolfo’s funeral, it’s revealed that Lola has re-adopted the two children and has taken up faith herself.
Explore the meaning of endings
As with any piece of art, there are several possible meanings that could be drawn from Tin & Tina’s ambiguous ending and the message that this writer has taken from the film may be different to that of another viewer.
For this writer, the message of Tin & Tina revolves around Lola and her capability of being a kind and loving parent and whether she actually deserves to be a mother who can compromise and accept the flaws in her children.
After suffering her tragic miscarriage at the start of the film, Lola is presented with the chance to give her love to Tin and Tina, a pair of twins who have not had an easy start to life, owing to their strict religious upbringing and for the bullying they’ve received due to their albinism.
Lola, who has been told it is impossible, gets pregnant as a thank you for providing a home to the children.
However, after getting what she’s always wanted in her own child, Lola quickly dismisses Tin and Tina and starts to distance herself from the twins, eventually disowning them altogether after they attempt to baptize their baby brother.
As punishment for casting out the twins, Lola’s husband is killed during the thunderstorm (again potentially brought by God) and only when she returns to her faith is she able to find her baby and escape.
What this tells us is that Lola wasn’t ready to become a mother at the start of the film as there was a chance that she may not have accepted what her children would become once they grew up.
She is now able to reach a compromise, and she wants to assist the twins in overcoming their difficult upbringing, rather than just throwing them out of her house when the going gets tough.
There are, of course, questions surrounding Tin and Tina and whether they’re truly innocent after killing the family dog and hurting the school bully. But it is worth remembering that they’re only children and having been brought up in such a strict religious environment, they don’t know any better.
It’s up to Lola to help guide them and to try and shape them into well-rounded kids who understand the difference between the bible’s literal teachings and its more fantastical elements.
Tin & Tina is available to stream now on Netflix The streaming service will be available on or after May 26th, 2023.
To get immediate help, please call First Candle on 1-800-2217437. There are 24/7 counselors available. This site is for families that have experienced the tragic loss of their baby due to miscarriage. This community is for those who have experienced the tragedy of losing a child. SupportingMamas can be contacted as well Here is a link to the article.