Tin & Tina (2023) Ending, Explained: Did The Twins Kill Adolfo?

Tin and Tina (2023) Ending, Explained

Tin & Tina (2023) Ending, Explained – Tin & Tina, an award-winning Spanish psychological horror film currently streaming on Netflix, offers an engaging adaptation of director Rubin Stein’s 2013 short film of the same name. The story centres around Lola and Adolfo, who decide to adopt the twins Tin and Tina and raise them as siblings. However, parenthood quickly proves challenging for them, bringing up feelings of anxiety and unease. Tin & Tina stands out by delving deeper into psychological aspects, gradually building tension towards its climactic conclusion. What distinguishes it is its unexpected ability to captivate viewers. Tin & Tina portrays Lola’s journey from doubt to faith, providing an engaging experience overall.

What Happens in the Tin Tina Movie

What Happens in the “Tin & Tina” Movie?

Tin & Tina opens with Lola and Adolfo exchanging vows happily on a sunny day in 1981. Their love is evident, and when Lola announces she is pregnant with twins, Adolfo shows extra compassion towards her. However, their joy is short-lived when they receive distressing news from their respective families after leaving the church: Lola experiences sudden bleeding that requires immediate medical assistance.

Lola wakes up weak and exhausted in a hospital bed, learning of an intense gun battle at the Congress of Deputies through live television coverage. Tragically, although Lola is no longer directly at risk, she learns that her babies have suffered internal damage due to her internal bleeding, which will prevent her from having further pregnancies.

Filled with sorrow, Adolfo and Lola decide to leave their hometown for Adolfo’s childhood home and find solace there. Initially hesitant about living there, Lola eventually embraces starting over. Determined to rebuild their lives, they embark upon the adoption process, seeking assistance from local adoption centres and convents.

During their visit to an adoption centre, Lola initially remains sceptical until she meets Tin and Tina, twin seven-year-olds who have lived at the facility since birth. Their remarkable skills on the church organ and genuine openness towards Lola leave a lasting impression. Eventually, Lola agrees to adopt Tin and Tina after learning about their struggles with albinism and hearing their own expressions of those struggles.

However, as Tin and Tina adjust to their new home, Lola and Adolfo quickly learn of their twins’ intense religious devotion. At such a young age, Tin and Tina possess an in-depth knowledge of biblical passages and interpret religious teachings quite literally. This presents Lola and Adolfo with unprecedented challenges as they try to balance parenthood while accommodating their twins’ strong religious convictions.

Despite Lola and Adolfo’s efforts to be great parents, they encounter unique difficulties due to Tin and Tina’s profound religious devotion. Their faith tests Lola and Adolfo’s resolve as parents, complicating their newly established family dynamic.

What Happened to Tin and Tina

What Happened to Tin & Tina?

Having spent her formative years in a convent, Lola did not experience strong religious devotion. Her miscarriage on her wedding day, soon after leaving the church, further damaged her faith. Adjusting to adoptive children who only know God through the Bible and their reverend mother takes some getting used to. If Tin and Tina had not taken their mother’s teachings so literally, Lola might have found it easier to adjust to them and their peculiarities.

Unfortunately, their extreme interpretation of religious teachings leads them to engage in bizarre and disturbing actions that go well beyond traditional penance practices. For example, they disembowel a family pet to “cleanse” its soul or impose self-imposed penance by adhering sharp cutlery to their knees. Regrettably, these disturbing activities continue throughout the film.

While it is terrifying when adults with malicious intentions commit dangerous acts, it becomes even more unsettling when young children, who have been taught a distorted sense of good and evil, act upon this understanding with dangerous outcomes. Tin and Tina’s genuine joy upon hearing of Lola’s unexpected pregnancy demonstrate their innocence, but their subsequent determination to continue playing their self-appointed roles as warriors of God only amplifies their behaviour. Tin sees Pedro as another “evil” to vanquish on Communion day itself.

Unfortunately, Lola’s husband proves unsupportive and immature, dismissing her concerns about their safety during her pregnancy, further complicating an already difficult situation for Lola.

Did Tin And Tina Kill Adolfo

Tin & Tina (2023) Ending, Explained: Did Tin And Tina Kill Adolfo?

Tin & Tina maintains its promised sense of ambiguity until the very end, leaving viewers puzzled. Lola begins questioning their decision to return their twin daughters to an orphanage, while Adolfo’s conventional approach to caring for their newborn raises further alarm for Lola. Lola bears all of the nurturing duties alone, leading to feelings of resentment towards Adolfo. In a surprising turn of events during a stormy night, Lola takes off her wedding ring, symbolizing a shift in responsibility, and heads outside into a fierce neighbourhood storm after Adolfo promises to fix the satellite reception on his terrace.

In the final scenes, Tin and Tina can be seen at the orphanage listening to Mother Asuncion’s sermon about God punishing atheists, with an overseeing nun occasionally nodding off. This leads to speculation that Tin and Tina have found a way to escape. Lola and Adolfo had provided directions from their house to the orphanage during their initial visit, and now there are small footprints near their front door. Adolfo is struck by lightning while attempting to extinguish the flames near the footprints, but Lola becomes distressed when she cannot find her son in his usual sleeping place. The staff has much discussion about who is responsible for the situation.

Tin & Tina does not explicitly show how far their religious beliefs pushed them towards evil, nor does it reveal whether they can perform acts of kindness. If the twins visited that evening, two possible scenarios could unfold: either they set Adolfo ablaze (which seems highly improbable), or they secured him within the house before the flames reached him. Unfortunately, details regarding either possibility remain unclear. At a crucial moment in her life, Lola finds strength in religion. Hoping that her religious belief could provide guidance or even just a glimpse of her child, Lola emulates Tina’s actions by choking herself to achieve her desires.

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Lola prays for help finding her child and, by some miraculous turn of events, hears his cries and finds him. Later, Mother Asuncion meets up with Lola after she successfully delivers her baby at the hospital, where Lola had been admitted for recovery. Since Lola had awakened Tin and Tina the previous morning in their orphanage room, Mother Asuncion knows they spent the night there. Although unlikely, it remains possible that they somehow made their way home overnight.

The intentionally ambiguous ending of this film allows for various interpretations. Personally, I interpret it as a series of coincidences. Lola gradually loses faith after suffering the unthinkable tragedy of losing both her twin children early on in the story, something for which she cannot be blamed. Tin and Tina’s extreme religious behaviour shocks Lola to her core. Lola may have doubts about religion due to childhood experiences, such as losing an arm in a caravan fire at her parents’ house. Losing her children and the ability to conceive biologically only deepened Lola’s doubts. Although originally an atheist, circumstances force Lola back towards Christianity so she can find and protect her child.

Losing her twin children may have irreparably damaged Lola’s psyche. Her strong disapproval of religion could have fueled deep-seated animosity towards religious figures like Tin and Tina, creating events within the narrative as manifestations of Lola’s fearful mind, mistaking Tin and Tina for potential threats. For example, she suspects them of poisoning her milk when they surprise her during pregnancy with drinks containing powdered sugar instead. However, Lola eventually finds comfort through renewed faith, allowing her to treat both children differently after her loss.

Tin & Tina also examines whether its titular characters are truly evil or victims of religious indoctrination. Raised in a convent orphanage governed solely by fanatical nuns, Tin and Tina sincerely believe they are doing good. The consequences of their actions, like opening a dog’s body to bless its soul, might be beyond the comprehension of two young children who have only ever known religious preaching for their education. Tin & Tina successfully utilizes the story of twin sisters as a metaphor to discuss the impact of religious dogma on impressionable minds in today’s society.

Tin and Tina undoubtedly exude an unnerving vibe, especially through their elaborate planning of strange rituals that end violently. However, their limited understanding of the gravity of their actions makes it unlikely for them to comprehend all the repercussions. Lola’s acceptance of Tin and Tina as innocent children who deserve a better life contributes to what may appear to be an idyllic final scene where Lola is seen with them at Adolfo’s funeral service. This outcome is not solely due to her restored faith but could also be seen as an opportunity for a brighter future for them under Lola’s care instead of under Mother Asuncion’s control in an orphanage run by her.

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