‘Acapulco’ Series Finale: Boss Breaks Down Máximo & Julia’s Happily Ever After

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Acapulco series finale, “Never Gonna Give You Up.”]

Máximo’s story has finally come to a close as Acapulco‘s final season concluded with the episode “Never Gonna Give You Up,” revealing the events around his and long-time love Julia’s happy ending.

Set in the 1980s and present-day, Apple TV+‘s bilingual comedy uncovered the event in the past that led to Máximo (Enrique Arrizon) and Julia’s (Camila Perez) demise as a couple. It turned out that the Las Colinas manager was going to propose to Julia after turning down a job offer from Ricardo Vera (Osvaldo Benavides). But just moments before Máximo popped the big question, Julia announced she’d been invited to do an apprenticeship with the House of Dior in Paris following her success working with Miss Universe.

Máximo’s reaction was less than satisfactory as he complained that they were meant to build their life in Acapulco. The fight left Julia walking away from him, and Máximo was upset over the turn of events. When Máximo accompanied his family to the airport to send his younger sister off to college in New York, he happened to see Julia from a distance as she prepared to board her flight, but instead of interrupting her progress or telling her not to go, he kept quiet and undetected as she left Acapulco behind.

In the end, young Máximo took up Vera on his offer, which teased his future success in the business after he pitched owning a percentage of the new hotel he’d manage for the man. Meanwhile, in the present day, Julia (Carolina Gómez) was irritated by Máximo (Eugenio Derbez) amidst the relaunch of Las Colinas.

Apple TV+

After Máximo explained his woes to his nephew Hugo (Raphael Alejandro), he asked the boy to invite Julia to meet him at their old spot, where the failed engagement took place. The catch? Julia never knew Máximo was going to propose that day in the ’80s, and so when she learned, her entire perspective on the situation changed. She heard Máximo out, and ultimately the pair decided to reconcile and give their romance an actual shot.

The episode ended with a group dinner in front of the newly reopened hotel’s fresh mural, which included portraits of all the people featured in the series over the seasons. As Máximo delivered a toast, his friends asked him to tell a story, but he argued it was someone else’s turn, allowing the night to end with a satisfactory conclusion and plenty of hope for the characters’ future.

Below, executive producer Austin Winsberg breaks down Acapulco‘s series finale ending, Máximo and Julia’s happily ever after, that mural, and much more.

Was the ending always going to unfold the way it did, or had it evolved under the four-season frame?

Austin Winsberg: We never totally knew when we were gonna end the show initially. Starting with Season 2, it was always the messaging of making it feel satisfying and mostly close-ended in the season finale, but also leaving doors open for the possibility of more. So, I think by the time we got to Season 4, we were feeling so fortunate that we wanted to make sure that by the time we got to the finale, we had some real emotional closure and answers to what happened in the relationship between Máximo and Julia. It was great that we were able to have some of the runway and time to really think that through.

How long did it take to make the mural that was crafted for the finale? Did anyone get to keep any parts of it?

Apple TV+

I joked that I was gonna take a piece of it and put it up in my backyard. It took weeks and weeks to do that with 30 different artists working at all times to create. And then afterwards, it was like, what do we do? It was gigantic. I think it had every single character that had ever been on the show, including cameos from my mother and me in the corner and my children, and other people, so it was an amazing thing to behold.

I think it might be stored somewhere in some warehouse in Mexico City right now, but don’t quote me on that. The genesis of that really came from the idea that Paloma’s [Vico Escorcia] husband, played by Cristo Fernandez, is an artist, and we liked the idea that he would be painting a mural for the resort and that we would reveal the mural in the final episode. Then it became a question of what should the mural be. Nico Scabini, who’s our incredible, brilliant production designer, showed me a very famous painting in Mexico that had a lot of people in it, and I think from looking at that, it came from that, the inspiration of that famous art piece. It’s kind of a great way to sort of pay homage to everybody who had been a part of it.

The finale subverts that trope of a romantic lead chasing their loved one at the airport by having Máximo let Julia go. How did it feel to break that stereotype? 

We knew from the beginning of the show that Máximo and Julia had not ended up together. So when we got them together in the ’80s, we had to figure out a way to end things between them, so that they could maybe reconcile one day. This was something that sort of evolved over the course of the show, but I never wanted to fully villainize Máximo. The original pitch was watching him sort of break bad over the years at the hotel, then when we cast Enrique, who’s so sweet, we started really talking about the character and the tone.

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And so we just wanted to make it a nuanced ending for them, where they loved each other, but Máximo also had a lot of growing up to do. He didn’t want to stop Julia from pursuing her own life and her own career, so as much as we loved the [idea of a] chase to the airport and wanting to do something big for the finale, we felt it was good for her and for him because of how much he loved her to let her go.

It’s the reality versus fantasy… It’s a more realistic ending. 

The show is about regrets and about the mistakes we make along the way and the lessons we learn, so I think that his big life regret was Julia, and I don’t know if he ever really got over losing her. Decisions Máximo made in his life had to do with that great loss that he felt in that ending and then to buy the resort at the end of Season 3 and to try to return it to its former glory, it’s all to try to win Julia back. So that was the big idea and endgame of the show is Máximo and Julia, and how do we get there.

Acapulco, Seasons 1-4, Streaming now, Apple TV+ 

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