We Were the Lucky Ones 1X8: Rio

OMG. You guys. The tears. It was really bad for, like, the second half of this episode. But, on the plus side, most of these are happy tears, so we've got that.

But before we get to that, we have to endure watching poor Halina get beaten and tortured for 3 months because she won't admit that she's Jewish. Eventually, her former boss shows up and vouches for her identity and she's able to get out.

And then it's really just a matter of everyone finding each other. We get the redo from the first episode with Halina getting a telegram. Turns out, it's from Genek who informs the family that he's in Italy with Selim and Herta. So, the parents, Halina, Adam, Mila, and Felicia make the trek up the Alps to reunite with them. I thought it was really lovely that when Genek is finally spotted, Halina makes a point of telling her mother that she gets to go greet him first.

Selim and Mila are finally reunited. It's a little timid, as they've basically spent more time apart than they have together, but he and Felicia seems to take to each other well. She'd been worried that he wouldn't like her and about what she should call him, but she refers to him as Papa, and he looks thrilled when she agrees to a hug.

In Rio, Addy finally gets a telegram from Genek letting him know that everyone is okay. He was so sure that everyone was dead. (Oh, and he and Caroline have gotten married- I like her a lot, I think she's a good match for him).

Four months later (I think), the family (minus Bella and Jakob who have decided to go to America to stay with her uncle), manages to get a ship to Rio. Addy is waiting very impatiently for them. So much so, that he borrows a row boat to head out to the shit just to wave at it a little closer.

It seems like a lot of the family (at least according to the credits), seemed to stay in Brazil or nearby. And we get an ending scene of the family at a Passover dinner. It just blows my mind how this family managed to beat all the odds. I think it was Bella who tells Adam that there is zero chance any of them should be alive after he finds out that his family had basically all died. (And him being upset that he prioritized people nearby in need instead of his own family- as Halina did- broke me. This man tried so hard to help so many people, and he couldn't help his own family.)

I'm glad I watched this, it was really good, but man was it a tough watch. I felt very certain we were going to get a halfway decent happy ending with the title, and I'm grateful for that. But man.