Two Pennies ZeroCalcare: Did Giulio the Dog Die? The Truth About the Ending

The ending of Two Pennies, the animated series of Zerocalcare su Netflix, leaves you with that uncomfortable feeling of stories that don't end everything with a bow, because they prefer to stay where it hurts the most. At the heart of fans' questions is above all Giulio, the dog of Montini, massacred by Paturnia and almost given up for dead after the attack. The answer, however, is crucial to understanding the meaning of the ending.

Does Giulio die in the finale of Due Spicci?

Julius does not die in the final of Two Pennies, even if the series builds around the dog one of the hardest and most emotionally heavy sequences of the entire story. After the attack suffered by Paturnia, Giulio is shown in very serious conditions, to the point of becoming the real emotional center of the collapse of Montini, which sees the only living being with whom he has a genuine, stable, and humiliating bond struck. The series leaves the viewer in suspense for a while, because Montini is arrested before learning the dog's outcome, and this very suspense makes the ending even crueler, as the man pays for his outburst of violence without immediately receiving confirmation that Giulio is safe.

The news comes only later, through Zerocalcare, who takes Giulio with him and writes to Montini to thank him for saving them, even sending him a photo with the dog, finally out of danger. It's not a sweet detail thrown in to soften the blow, because in a series so uninterested in easy consolations, Giulio's survival becomes one of the few possible forms of reparation. Montini isn't absolved, he isn't made a hero, and he doesn't receive a happy ending, but at least he discovers that the dog he lost control over is alive, and in a story dominated by failures, guilt, and emotionally broken adults, that's no small thing.

Why Giulio is Montini's breaking point

Giulio is the breaking point because he represents the only clean bond in the life of Montini, a character marked by years of Bullying, isolation and humiliation suffered without ever being able to truly react. In the final of Two PenniesThe violence against the dog doesn't simply function as a narrative device to anger the audience, but as a detonator of already accumulated suffering, because Paturnia doesn't just attack an animal, but the only presence capable of keeping Montini connected to something good. Zerocalcare uses Giulio to highlight the precise point at which a fragile person, accustomed to taking everything in their stride, can no longer contain their anger.

Montini's gesture against Paturnia It stems from there, not from heroic will, not from a clear plan, nor even from revenge portrayed as liberation. The series is much more bitter, because it shows how the attack on Giulio unleashes a violence that Montini no longer knows how to control, transforming the story's most marginal character into the murderer no one truly saw coming. The choice is powerful because it shifts the burden of the finale away from the most aggressive and predictable characters, placing it on the shoulders of those who seemed destined only to suffer, as if the series were saying that invisibility, when compressed for too long, can become tragedy.

Who Killed Paturnia and Why the Dog Changed Everything

In the final of Two Pennies, the series initially seems to suggest that killing Paturnia may have been Carlo and Emilio, the brothers of Emerald, because their anger, their involvement and the desire to protect their sister lead the viewer towards a more linear explanation. Then comes the reversal, because the real culprit is Montini, seen by Zero with the bloody knife in his hand, in a scene that changes the entire season. Paturnia is eliminated not by someone who seemed ready for battle, but by a fragile, peripheral figure, almost always out of focus compared to the main chaos.

The role of Giulio It's crucial because the attack on the dog gives concrete form to Montini's desperation, transforming a suffering that had lain dormant for years into an irreversible act. The series doesn't suggest Montini acted correctly, and it would be wrong to read it that way, because Zerocalcare carefully avoids the rhetoric of just revenge. Rather, it shows a tragic consequence, born from the intersection of personal trauma, loneliness, fear, and love for the only creature capable of making Montini feel needed by anyone. Giulio, therefore, isn't just the dog to be saved, but the point through which the finale dismantles any overly convenient interpretation of the killer.

Zerocalcare takes Giulio and writes to Montini

After the arrest of Montini, Zerocalcare He takes Giulio with him, and this choice significantly changes the weight of the ending, because not only guilt remains, but also a concrete responsibility. Zero cannot save Montini from prison, he cannot erase Paturnia's death, and he cannot heal the pain that led to that act, but he can take care of Giulio and ensure that Montini knows the truth. The letter he writes to him, accompanied by the photo with the dog, thus becomes a minimal but powerful form of restitution, because Montini enters prison without knowing whether Giulio has made it, and receiving that confirmation means not remaining forever in the darkness of the final image.

The photo of Zero with Giulio Alive and Safe has a very specific narrative value, as it transforms the dog into a presence that continues to connect inside and outside, freedom and prison, guilt and gratitude. Zero thanks Montini for saving them, but this gratitude doesn't cleanse the murder, make it acceptable, or erase its gravity. Rather, it serves to acknowledge the complexity of the story, because Montini committed an extreme act, yet within that tragedy he prevented Paturnia from further harm. The series thus remains in its best territory, that of unresolved contradictions, where no one is truly innocent and no one can be reduced to a single definition.

Giulio's mother and her meeting with Montini in prison

Another important passage concerns the mother of Giulio, which Zerocalcare accompanies to meet Montini In prison. Here too, the series doesn't seek easy emotion, because the encounter isn't intended to build a clean redemption, but rather to show how the ending leaves the characters in a fragile equilibrium, made up of visits, news brought from outside, and relationships that survive in a twisted way. Montini is in prison, Giulio is alive, Zero has taken responsibility for the dog, and Giulio's mother can visit her son, bringing, at least in part, a confirmation he didn't have at the time of his arrest.

The scene works because it once again rejects the idea of ​​a closed, clear, peaceful ending. Montini he doesn't come back free, Giulio it does not erase the tragedy, Zero he doesn't suddenly become a resolved person, but something moves anyway, and that movement comes through small gestures, almost bureaucratic in their concreteness, like a letter, a photo, a visit to prison, a dog taken into custody. In Two Pennies, the good does not come as a narrative reward, but as minimal maintenance of the disaster, and perhaps for this very reason it weighs more.

Why Giulio Saved Doesn't Make the Ending Happy

The fact that May Julius be alive it doesn't make the ending of Two Pennies happy, because the series does not use the dog's survival to erase the violence suffered, the murder of Paturnia or the condemnation of MontiniOn the contrary, Giulio's salvation makes the ending more painful, because it confirms that Montini lost everything before even knowing that the only person he truly cared about had survived. There's a distinct cruelty in this construction, because the viewer receives positive news, but receives it within a context in which no consequences can be undone.

The strength of the ending lies precisely in the absence of a real reward. Julius livesZero takes him in, Montini receives a photo, his mother manages to see him, but every kind gesture comes too late to prevent ruin. Zerocalcare often works this way, stripping emotional twists of all sugary temptations, because the characters' lives remain filled with damage, anxiety, missed responsibilities, and imperfect attempts to avoid sinking. Giulio thus becomes the symbol of a minimal, non-saving hope, capable of saying that something can survive, even when no one can truly turn back.

The ending of Due Spicci absolves no one

The ending of Two Pennies does not absolve Montini, even if it forces the viewer to look at him with a pity far more uncomfortable than simple judgment. The series shows a broken man, unable to defend himself for years, driven beyond the limits by the attack on Giulio, but never transforms the murder of Paturnia In a glorious act. Here, Zerocalcare is more intelligent than fictional revenge, avoiding both flat condemnation and moral exaltation, leaving the audience faced with a much more difficult question: how much pain a person can accumulate before becoming, in turn, part of the damage.

The Zero He remains within this ambiguity, because adopting Giulio and writing to Montini is one of his most concrete gestures, but it doesn't erase all his hesitations, his feelings of guilt, and his chronic difficulty in taking a stand. The dog, paradoxically, becomes the way through which Zero, at least for a moment, breaks free from his usual mental swamp, because caring for Giulio means making a choice, not simply commenting on the disaster with his inner armadillo. In such a bitter ending, this responsibility weighs more than many solemn declarations.

The blunt answer about Giulio's fate

The short answer, for those just looking for spoilers, is that Julius does not die in the final of Two Pennies. The dog of Montini, beaten almost to death by Paturnia, survives and is taken in by Zerocalcare, who then writes to Montini in prison to thank him and show him, with a photo, that Giulio is fine. The series leaves Montini behind bars, but it doesn't leave him without that news, and in such a harsh story, even a detail like that becomes a form of healing.

The ending remains heartbreaking precisely because it does not resolve the pain with the dog's survival, but uses Giulio to tell the story of the connection between fragility, responsibility, and consequences. Montini pays for his actions, Zero takes care of the dog, the mother visits her son in prison, and the viewer is left faced with an uncomfortable truth: that sometimes a life can be saved without actually saving everyone else. Julius is alive, but Two Pennies For this reason, it doesn't become a story with a happy ending, because Zerocalcare doesn't tell miracles, it tells people who try to keep the remaining pieces together.