Fermín and Federico Rescue the Injured Daniel

Fermín and Don Federico Flavia rescue Daniel after he is abducted from a snowbound street, converting a moment he expects to end in Fumero’s violence into an uneasy refuge. Daniel is badly hurt and carrying Nuria Monfort’s manuscript; the rescue preserves both his life and the document, but it cannot quiet his need to find Bea or make him willing to accept protection.

The Abduction and Recognition

As Daniel approaches the crossing with Calle Balmes, a car follows close along the pavement. His head injury has brought on vertigo, and he can only make his way by holding the walls. Two men in black get out, seize him from either side, and hurry him into the car. Nausea and bursts of blinding light distort his awareness as the vehicle moves; hands search his face, head, and ribs before one of the men discovers the manuscript hidden inside his coat and snatches it away.

Daniel cannot hear the figures clearly. In his fear and delirium, he waits for Fumero to appear and use a knife on him. Instead, as consciousness gives way, he recognizes the toothless, welcoming smile of Fermín Romero de Torres. That recognition reverses the meaning of the abduction: the men who have dragged him away are not taking him to his pursuer but rescuing him from the street. The manuscript’s removal, alarming in the moment, also brings the endangered document into the hands of his allies.

A Borrowed Sanctuary

Daniel wakes sweating in a small bed, with Fermín holding his shoulders and Don Federico standing nearby. Candles surround the bed like lights at a wake, an image that makes the rescue feel precarious rather than triumphant. Don Federico offers to prepare broth, while Fermín, responding to the same crisis with characteristic appetite, asks him to make a sandwich as well. The ordinary food and teasing practicality establish a fragile domestic counterpoint to Daniel’s recent violence and confusion.

When Daniel asks where they are, Fermín explains that they are in a small apartment on the left side of the Ensanche, property belonging to friends of Don Federico. He describes it as a sanctuary, despite the slanderers who might call it a love nest, and credits those absent friends with helping save their lives. The hiding place is borrowed, not their own, and its safety depends on discretion and assistance from others. Don Federico’s presence, practical care, and departure to fetch food make him an active partner in the rescue, not merely a witness to it.

Care and Resistance

By one o’clock, Daniel has swallowed painkillers and sipped broth that tastes of sherry. Don Federico discreetly leaves the room, and Daniel notices that Fermín now has Nuria’s manuscript on his lap. Its recovery answers the earlier moment when one of the abductors pulled it from Daniel’s coat: the manuscript has survived the seizure and remains with the rescuers. Fermín has also read it, though the episode does not disclose what he makes of its contents.

Daniel’s attention turns immediately to Bea. He insists that he must find her before it is too late and says he thinks he knows where she is. He pushes Fermín’s arms aside and tries to sit up, but the room sways and the ceiling seems to recede; he can barely keep himself upright. Fermín lays him back down and tells him he is going nowhere. The conflict is not a rejection of the rescue but a clash between Daniel’s urgent purpose and the physical limits imposed by his injuries.

Enforced Rest and the Rescue’s Consequence

When Daniel asks what the pills were, Fermín calls them “Morpheus’s liniment” and says they will make him sleep. The joke does not disguise the practical decision: Daniel is in no condition to go after Bea, and Fermín intends to keep him from attempting it. Daniel continues to protest until his eyelids close and he falls into a black, empty sleep, described as the sleep of the guilty. His temporary surrender is therefore both bodily and moral in tone; the refuge secures rest, but his fear that delay may matter remains unresolved.

The episode’s decisive change is from exposed vulnerability to guarded survival. Daniel entered it bleeding, unable to hear properly, and convinced that Fumero’s men had captured him; he ends it in a protected apartment, with Fermín and Don Federico beside him and Nuria’s manuscript recovered. Yet rescue does not settle the danger or Daniel’s next objective. It buys time by imposing stillness on someone determined to act, making care itself a form of resistance to the pursuit outside.