As the second episode of The Split: Barcelona begins, Hannah (Nicola Walker) thinks about Archie (Toby Stephens) and looks through his social media pictures. Liv (Elizabeth Roberts) interrupts to tell her mom that Gael (Alex Guersman) is gone and the wedding has been canceled. Outside, Ronnie (Ian McElhinney) and Ruth (Deborah Findlay) join Nina (Annabel Scholey). They talk about the wedding being canceled. Ruth asks Nina where she snuck off to last night. Nine claims she was about to drop. Lola (Dariam Coco) walks by seconds later. Alvaro (Manu Fullola) says good morning before speaking to Valentina (Romina Cocca) about their son. They argue about Wren. Valentina will play his wife today, but it’s over after that. She tells Alvaro to find their son and to sort out the mess. Nathan (Stephen Mangan) checks on Hannah and asks about their daughter. Nathan tells Liv he never liked Gael anyway.

They also talk about marriage being overrated. Hannah explains this is not what marriage is about. Archie arrives at the door to check on Hannah. He asks if there’s anything he can do. Hannah says no before shutting the door on him. Nathan thinks that was rude. Outside, Glen (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) offers to speak to Gael. Rose (Fiona Button) says the God squad is the last thing he needs. Glen storms off. Nina thinks Rose should tell him that she’s pregnant. The others find out about the pregnancy. Ruth urges Hannah to speak to Archie since he’s open again. Wren (Amanda Goldsmith) walks by and yells good morning to the group. Alvaro thought they agreed she’d leave, but Wren says they agreed to nothing. Liv tells Alvaro they’re not getting married. She admits she didn’t want any of this wedding. Liv gets upset and storms off. Hannah speaks to Valentina in the chapel. Valentina admits she almost ran on the day of the marriage but he believes in marriage.

Valentina blames herself before admitting that Gael is ignoring her calls. Hannah asks what she wants to do about her marriage. She recommends striking first if they can’t resolve their marital issues. Valentina suggests getting started today. Hannah approaches Nina to tell her to meet her in Valentina’s suite in ten minutes. She talks to Nina and Ruth about what they’ll need. Archie approaches Hannah to ask about Valentina’s decision. Hannah suspects he’ll be advising Alvaro. Archie believes there will be a 50/50 split although Hannah does not. Hannah doesn’t want to talk about their relationship either. She urges Archie to speak to his client. Glen interrupts Rose because the girls want to say hello. Rose admits they’re not sure whether any of this is going to happen. Glen says she’s driving him crazy. Rose asks for space. She gets sick and tells him she’ll meet him downstairs. Rose pleads with Liv to let her in. Archie catches up with Alvaro to ask how much he promised Wren.

Alvaro reveals he promised her a five million lump sum and a 10% share of this place. Nathan joins Alvaro to search for Gael. Hannah and Nina speak to Valentine about her assets. Their prenup says a lump sum will be paid to Alvaro in the third decade of marriage which is a week away. Archie is shocked that Hannah managed to pull it off today. Hannah shows him the prenup on the napkin. Archie insists no one is going to take the napkin seriously. Hannah says her Spanish lawyer may not agree. Ruth tells Hannah what she knows about Wren. She wants to know what was promised. Valentina says Senor Santos lives about 20 minutes away and he signed their original prenup. Valentina says Lola can drive Nina there. Meanwhile, Nathan and Alvaro search for Gael. Lola tries to talk to Nina about last night. Nina says she’s not sorry about last night. Then, they learn that Xavier Santos (Pedro Gutierrez) left for a wedding about five minutes ago.

Ruth finds Julian (Tibu Fortes) outside speaking to Wren. Ruth asks Wren to take a walk with her. Ruth asks her about striking a deal. Wren admits she was there to make Alvaro sweat. Ruth promises to make sure she’s compensated properly if she drops the claim and leaves the family alone. Nina catches up with Xavier Santos and tells him what they need. Santos signs the paperwork in front of Archie who reminds Nina the divorce papers have to be served by a disinterested party. Julian gets upset with Nina and suggests she wants someone who doesn’t care about her. Julian proposes to her. Nina admits it’s a very nice ring. She says no because she’s spent a lot of time getting to this place in her life. Nina asks Julian to do one last thing for her. Glen and Rose continue arguing. They talk about marriage. Rose admits she just doesn’t want to get married right now. Glen says the girls wanted her to ask if she’d consider adopting them. Hannah overhears Archie speaking to Ethan about her on the phone.

After the call, Archie talks to Hannah about his son and his past relationship. Archie doesn’t think Hannah felt the same way he did. Hannah takes a call from Liv and has to run. Hannah meets Liv and talks about her marriage to Nathan. Liv immediately suspects Gael will be at the cove since they slept down there on the night they got engaged. Nathan gets the message and shows Alvaro before they head to the cove. Nathan is on the phone with Hannah when he spots Gael nearby. Gael insists he hasn’t changed his mind about Liv. Nathan tells him he’ll get to make his own mistakes now. Liv calls Gael moments later and he apologizes. Liv says she gets it if he doesn’t want to get married. They agree to do it their way. Alvaro tries to speak to Gael who says he’s not going to listen to anything he has to say. Gael admits he’s disappointed in his father. Archie watches as Julian serves Alvaro when he returns. Julian learns with Wren moments later. Archie tells Hannah he’ll see her back in London since his work is done.

Hannah apologizes to him before Nina interrupts. Valentina asks Archie to stay for the wedding. Later, Hannah confronts Valentina because she suspects she knew this wasn’t her husband’s first affair. Valentina saved a lot of money by doing it all today. Valentina agrees that Archie is right about Hannah being good. Liv, Gael, and the others go to the cove for the wedding. Ruth tells Hannah she regrets every year she didn’t tell Ronnie how she felt. She urges Hannah not to waste any more time. Liv and Gael get married. Nathan asks Hannah if they signed the prenup. Hannah says they didn’t because they have no other plan. Rose tells Glen they can adopt the girls together. Later, Archie speaks to Rose and Nina. They ask him multiple questions. Valentina tells Alvaro his biggest mistake was underestimating the women in his life. Moments later, Valentina tells Archie she can see why he’s in love with her. Hannah asks Nathan what life is like after this.

He admits it’s different. One evening a few months ago, Nathan took the bus all the way home and realized he was standing outside the wrong house. He could see Hannah through the window watching television. Nathan wanted to knock on the door until he remembered he had promised to cook that night. He says Hannah is not his person anymore and vice versa. She needs to go and find hers now. They agree they did such good. Hannah sits with Archie who says he’s envious of her family. Hannah tells him that she had an affair with the solicitor who moved to New York. She believes she failed in her marriage and her vows. Hannah isn’t sure she’s forgiven herself. She’s scared of being with someone but also scared of being alone. They talk about their bodies. Hannah has only slept with two men in her life. Archie would be the third. She’s scared because she thinks Archie might be right and he might fit in there with these people.

Archie asks if she’d prefer the mountain or the beach. He’d pick the beach. Archie helps her up and they kiss. As they walk back with the others, Archie admits he may have to miss his flight.

 

The Split: Barcelona Review

The second part of The Split: Barcelona didn’t do enough to make up for the first. It was hard to reconnect with these characters after this long and their situations certainly didn’t help matters. It’s really questionable whether the series even needed to return considering how weak this ending was compared to the original conclusion.

It was a bit silly for the women to run around trying to finalize a divorce in the middle of a wedding. There’s a good chance there would be more obstacles that would make that a lot more difficult. It was pretty much a given that Liv and Gael would still get married.

Julian turned out to be a moot point and Rose’s storyline fell flat as well. Ultimately, it felt like this was a weak attempt to exploit the popularity of the original series and it failed pretty badly. Honestly, it might be better to just forget that this ever happened because it certainly didn’t add anything positive to the original and it only made many of the characters unlikable.

When all was said and done, I just didn’t care about any of this, the characters, or their futures and that was never the case for the original. This episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of The Split: Barcelona can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link.

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