‘The Cleaning Lady’: How Will Arman’s Story End? 5 Theories
The Cleaning Lady Season 3 will eventually have to write out Adan Canto‘s Arman. The actor tragically died after a private battle with appendiceal cancer on January 8, 2024 at just 42 years old.
Filming on Season 3 began in December 2023, but Canto was waiting to return to set until after receiving treatments. He sadly didn’t have the chance to film anything for what was supposed to be an Arman-heavy third season before his death. Canto’s brief appearance in the Season 1 premiere was presumably unused footage from a previous season that the show retrofitted for the new installment.
The premiere set up the reason for Arman’s absence (and dedicated the season to Canto in the end credits), and the mystery of his disappearance has unfolded slowly over five episodes. Here’s what we know: Arman is currently being detained by a group connected to his Aunt Ramona (Kate del Castillo), who is tied to the cartel. Jorge (Santiago Cabrera) works closely with her, and is intrigued with Thony (Élodie Yung) like Arman was when they first met.
Ramona and Jorge are the only ones capable of updating Thony and Nadia (Eva De Dominici) on Arman’s wellbeing. It doesn’t seem that we’ll be waiting until the end of the season to find out what happened to Arman. In the meantime, here are some theories on how we think his storyline will play out.
1. He’ll be killed by his captors.
This is the easiest theory to pose. The nefarious group keeping Arman captive will go back on whatever deal they’ve negotiated with Ramona and kill her nephew instead for no reason other than to exert power against their rival. It would be a sad end, but the show could honor the strong character by saying he went out fighting.
Jeff Neumann/FOX
2. Arman is killed during an escape attempt.
Bodycam footage shown to Nadia by Agent Russo (Liza Weil) confirmed Arman was alive when he was kidnapped at the air hangar in Episode 1. He was shoved into a van, but Arman, trying to fend for himself despite being injured, ripped the mask off his captor’s face as he tried to fight back. Arman has always been a strong, determined character. He wouldn’t just sit around and wait to be saved. Even though we wouldn’t see it happen, it would honor Arman and Canto to say that he died fighting as he tried to escape.
3. Nadia’s bounty hunter will get Arman killed.
Nadia hired a man to find Arman in Episode 5, a move Ramona criticized because it “could get him killed.” She’s also offered to work with Agent Russo to get him back in exchange for immunity for both of them. If the cartel catches wind of this deal, that would give them motive to off Arman. The tragedy of this development would also make for a dramatic narrative arc for Nadia as she recovers.
4. Ramona will get him killed.
Ramona may not be willing to negotiate with cartel much longer. Something she says could prompt his captors to kill him in retaliation, or she could pretend that her nephew is expendable and they call her bluff. Arman’s family history was always going to be a main plotline of Season 3. This development would show us a new side to this character who may be sticking around longer in the series in light of Canto’s passing.
5. He’ll go to prison to protect Thony and Nadia.
It would be nice to imagine that Arman isn’t dead, but rather locked up with no chance of parole. We could learn that he brokered is own deal with the feds that would free him from the cartel but land him in prison, the caveat of the deal being that Nadia and Thony are given immunity, whom he’s always protected. This would leave room to hear from Arman occasionally, albeit the updates would just have to come from Nadia or Thony after calls from him in prison. Alternatively, his absence could be explained by saying that if he wanted Nadia and Thony safe, he had to cut all ties with them.
The Cleaning Lady, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox
