Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for Money Heist season 4 ahead.
Netflix's crime thriller series Money Heist has killed off key characters before, but perhaps no death has been as controversial as that of Nairobi (Alba Flores) in season 4. A key member of the gang since Money Heist season 1, Nairobi supervised the printing of money at the Royal Mint and then oversaw the melting of gold in the Bank of Spain in seasons 3 and 4.
In gang of hotheads and big egos, Nairobi was one of the most level-headed robbers: focused on doing the job, doing it right, and getting out alive. Her passionate and upbeat personality made her well-liked by just about everyone - even hostages, with Royal Mint employee Torres (Antonio Cuellar Rodriguez) telling her that she was the best boss he had ever worked for. She even took time out to rescue Alison Parker (María Pedraza) from bullies and give her a lesson in self-affirmation to help her stand up for herself. Nairobi was, in her own words, "la puta ama" (the f**king boss), and many viewers feel that she deserved better than the death she got.
Nairobi was so well-liked by fans that her death was always going to be controversial, but the circumstances of it only made matters worse. Whereas Berlin went out in a blaze of glory at the end of Money Heist season 2, facing a hail of police bullets as he bought the rest of the gang enough time to escape, Nairobi's death was quick and ugly, and came at the tail end of suffering and humiliation. She was captured by Gandía (José Manuel Poga), the Bank of Spain's chief of security, who stuffed her head through a hole in a toilet door and kept her trapped there. Gandía then shot her in the hand to make the other gang members back off. He emerged using her as a human shield, and just when it seemed like Nairobi was about to get away, he called her a "mutt" one last time and shot her in the head.
It was an ignoble death for such a beloved character, and seemed to serve two purposes: to make the audience hate Gandía even more than they already did, and to give the rest of the gang fresh motivation to see the heist through to the end. It could be argued that no other character's death would have had as great an impact as Nairobi's, given how well-liked she was. In comparison to Berlin, who was already dying of a terminal illness and happily embraced death, Nairobi had a clear future planned for herself: she would have another child, and one day reunite with her first son, Axel.
To make matters worse, Nairobi had already come close to being killed off at the end of Money Heist season 3, after Alicia Sierra (Najwa Nimri) tricked her into coming close to a window so that a sniper could shoot her. Much of Money Heist season 4 was spent with the gang desperately trying to save Nairobi's life, and she was just beginning to recover from her wound when she was killed, making her death seem that much more cruel.
Of course, there is a case to be made that all of the reasons why Nairobi's death stung so badly are what made it a great piece of drama. The loss is comparable to the death of Moscow in Money Heist season 2 - a character who simply wanted to give his son a better life than he'd had. Money Heist is a show that's packed with melodrama, and there's nothing more tragic than a likeable character with pure motivations being killed off. It also sends a message that no character in Money Heist has plot armor - similar to the death of Ned Stark in Game of Thrones season 1.
As controversial as Nairobi's death may have been, at least the character was sent off in style, with her best friend Helsinki (Darko Peric) playing a solemn tune on the harmonica as the Governor of the Bank of Spain's personal guard carried her coffin away - her epitaph "la puta ama" written on the side. And given that Berlin, Oslo and Moscow all returned via flashbacks in Money Heist seasons 3 and 4, we may not have seen the last of Nairobi in the show.