Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine, the second season of the prequel series to Netflix’s hit show Money Heist, follows jewel thief Berlin (Andrés de Fonollosa) in a high-stakes operation in Seville. What looks like a straightforward art heist gradually turns into a multi-layered criminal scheme involving a hidden fortune, an underground vault, and shifting alliances inside the team. What begins as a job centered on a single masterpiece slowly expands into a plan where the real target is not the painting itself, but the entire financial structure protecting a powerful aristocrat.
The mission is triggered by Duke Alvaro Hermoso de Medina, a wealthy and influential figure who hires Berlin to steal Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Lady with an Ermine. However, the request is not as simple as it seems. Alvaro uses the painting as part of a controlled scenario designed to keep Berlin inside his orbit, testing his abilities while subtly maintaining influence over every step of the operation.
Alvaro’s controlled trap
Alvaro is not a passive victim of the heist but the architect of the situation. Instead of resisting Berlin, he designs the circumstances of the job himself, ensuring that every movement happens inside a space he believes he can observe and influence. The painting request is the tool he uses to achieve this control, creating a scenario where Berlin must operate under rules that appear external but are actually shaped by Alvaro.
Once Berlin accepts the job, the dynamic changes. The painting becomes less important as an object and more important as an entry key into Alvaro’s private system. While Alvaro believes he is evaluating Berlin’s skill, Berlin is quietly using the opportunity to study everything behind the request, including security patterns, financial structures, and hidden operations that reveal a much larger criminal network.
During his infiltration of Alvaro’s estate, Berlin…
