How ‘The Cleaning Lady’ Season 3 Premiere Set Up Arman’s Final Arc
Spoiler Alert
The Cleaning Lady Season 3 has been dedicated to Adam Canto.
The actor, who played Arman throughout the series, died after a private battle with cancer in January. Canto was seen briefly in the Season 3 opener, which aired on March 5 at 8/7c on Fox, but how will the series address Arman’s inevitable exit? And how did the premiere set up that plot? Here, we explain it all.
Sadly, Canto died before he could film any of The Cleaning Lady Season 3. The show had reportedly planned for Canto to be temporarily written out of the series while he received treatment, and then he would make his return. Instead, what was presumably old, unused footage was retrofitted for the new Season 3 plot.
The Cleaning Lady Season 3 began with a flash-forward that showed Thony (Élodie Yung) being attacked and apprehended by a small group of masked adversaries. It then cut to two days earlier, when Thony was preparing for a flight on Arman and Nadia’s (Eva De Dominic) private jet that would take her to the Philippines, where she would then attempt to bring her deported sister-in-law, Fiona (Martha Millan), back home to her son, Chris (Sean Lew).
The plan was thwarted when law enforcement arrived on the tarmac and began shooting at Arman, Thony, and his crew. Arman was hit in the crossfire. Nadia, Arman’s wife who was none too pleased to learn that he arranged this flight for his possible lover, appeared at the last minute and was able to get her and Thony to safety. But they had to leave Arman behind not knowing if he was dead or alive.
They both feared the worst when Arman didn’t get in contact after the shootout, not even with their in-case-of-emergency methods of contact. So begins the search for Arman, the duration of which only time will tell.
To find Arman, Thony and Nadia found his estranged parents. His father wanted nothing to do with his son, whom he and his wife hadn’t seen in 23 years, but Arman’s mother provided vital info that connected Arman to a cartel. The group, led by siblings Ramona and Jorge Sanchez (Kate del Castillo and Santiago Cabrera), are also looking for Arman.
Jeff Neumann/FOX
Thony will have to work with yet another shady group to discover the information she desperately needs. In the meantime, Fiona will have to wait a while longer in the Philippines. But son Chris made a shocking return there, threatening the status of his U.S. citizenship.
In Arman’s absence, Thony has a lack of resources to help get Fiona back, but she’s not giving up. And with Child Protective Services now threatening to take Luca from Thony, the stakes have risen even higher.
We’ll have to wait and see how the show plans to write out Arman, but for now Thony and Nadia still have hope he could be alive. The episode ended with a tribute to Canto, saying the entire season is dedicated to his memory.
The Cleaning Lady, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox
