#god imagine if the theories that he's Sergio's son are true

[dormarunt]

Rafael (presumably) de Fonollosa - human male, subspecies "stereotypical nerd", aged 31 according to the Money Heist fandom wiki, electrical engineer with a post-graduate degree in cybersecurity.

Given the fucky timelines in this show, I'm going to assume that he's 31 years old in 2019, when the Gold heist happens, which means he was born in 1988, when his father (born 07/04/75 according to his police file) was 13. So okay let's all assume that Andres changed his identity entirely, that's why they find nothing about Sergio in part 1 when the police finds his file - Andres chose a new name and, like the vain man he is, he chose to make himself younger too. Because why the hell not, amirite?

So we meet Rafael de Fonollosa some vague time after Andres and Martin have their time in that monastery (which was around 2014), when he meets his father and his beautiful wife Tatiana in Copenhagen.

The guy was a mystery to the entire fandom ever since Pedro shared that image of them two in Copenhagen. The fandom was abuzz with speculations of him being his son (later kinda confirmed when Pedro spoiled the entire subplot that Rafael sleeps with Tatiana in a painting he shared on Insta; love him, he's flawless).

So we meet Rafael. Who, throughout the show, seems to have the spine of an overcooked spaghetti strand. Homeboy just does what the plot needs him to do, and he does it with a bumbling laughter like the stereotypical nerd that he so clearly is (he has glasses and wears headphones - see? nerd. I, too, have glasses, wear headphones all the time and am an IT nerd; trust me, he's legit)

First thing he tells his father is - "I'm not going to rob with you in my life, dad!" and just a few short scenes later there he is, robbing with his dad.

Andres asks him, "Do you want to sleep with my wife?" To which he bumbles a, "If things were different--" only to see him, a few short episodes later, admitting to his dad that he "couldn't help it" and has been indeed sleeping with his wife for thee whole weeks.

Last episode, we have Tatiana basically speak for him and say that they won't give the gold back (love her, you go queen, you were done so dirty but hey, you got a total of what, 10 lines and an upskirt shot in part 5?) but then, a slip of a paper and some nostalgia later, Rafael decides, aaah, fuck it. It's suddenly a ~family matter, we will give Sergio the gold back! Tatiana isn't sure that Sergio will give them half of the gold back (and I mean, if I were Sergio I wouldn't, plus I'd send him to his room and ground him for like, a month) but Rafael is suddenly all about family - his super recent stealing from his family notwithstanding.

So yes, this is Rafael. A guy who's been building his life to be an honest cybersecurity expert (think "anti-hacker") but then he meets his absent father and immediately accepts the way he's still horrible with him. I'm specifically referring to the "I've forgiven you for being born" line, which should have made him go, "wow, fuck you" and leave. But he doesn't leave. Not only that, but he completely folds on his idea to live an honest, law-abiding life after-- his dad explains to him the Viking Gold Heist? Whatever, Andres de Fonollosa is charismatic and persuasive I guess.

And then he steals his wife, and steals Sergio's gold, but gives half of it back and I wonder - had Andres asked nicely and mentioned family a bit more, would he have folded on Tatiana too?

And, let's not forget - his last and most important contribution to the show was a last-minute addition - Alex Pina only thought to link the fake Viking Gold plot to the main plot at the very last second, which means-- We were only supposed to see Rafael entering Andres' life, doing a heist with him (that we know of, there might have been more off-screen), then stealing his wife? So the entire "purpose" of Rafael was to explain why Andres divorced Tatiana, just because in season 1 Berlin says he's been divorced five times and in part 3 they make it clear that Tatiana is unlucky no 5? He was there only to close that plotline in the most dramatic way possible (while also coming with a reason for Andres to go to prison, since he was good enough to never have been caught until then or since).

...we're going to see him in the spin-off, aren't we? Since it's unclear for how long the three de Fonollosas have been heisting together (boringly, according to Tatiana).

Maybe we'll find out what he and former Mrs de Fonollosa were doing during the Mint heist, were they just sitting on their bums, sad that they couldn't swoop in at the last second like they ultimately do with the gold one? Was selling Sergio and the team to the police out of the question, while stealing from them is aokay? Anyway, I do not understand Rafael.