The new Spanish thriller series That Night (org. title: Esa noche) just dropped on Netflix. While the Arbizu sisters are at the center of the mystery, it’s the woman who married into the family who’s the beating heart of every scene she’s in. Her name is Luisa, and she’s the most lovable LGBTQ character.
That Night is a six-episode Spanish-language limited series that premiered on Netflix on March 13, 2026. It’s based on a book by a UK author, so it’s already generating buzz for its tense, layered thriller plot. When a young single mother gets embroiled in a murder during an island getaway, her sisters rush to help — but only make things worse.
It’s gripping, gritty, and full of moral chaos. However, for LGBTQ viewers, there’s something else entirely worth talking about: Luisa. The lovable wife of one of the Arbizu sisters.
Who Is Luisa in That Night on Netflix?
Luisa is the wife of Paula (played by Elite and Las Pelotaris 1926 alum Claudia Salas), the eldest of the three Arbizu sisters. She’s portrayed by Nüll García, and from the moment she appears on screen, something becomes abundantly clear — Luisa is the emotional backbone of this entire family.
Not just of the couple. Of everyone.
All three sisters — Paula, Cris (Paula Usero), and Elena (Clara Galle) — trust and love Luisa. In a show where loyalties shift, secrets pile up, and no one is entirely innocent, Luisa is the one person everyone seems to genuinely want in their corner.
She’s warm, steady, and perceptive in ways the blood relatives sometimes aren’t with each other.
Also, it’s worth noting that in a series like That Night, where everyone has untreated trauma, Luisa is the only one who has gone to therapy. A past relationship left her broken, so she took action to heal. The Arbizu sisters never did, and so their lives are the direct result of childhood trauma.
Well, that and a father who made sure they were never allowed to heal.
The One Person Who Won’t Accept Her — and Why It Says Everything
There is, of course, one notable exception to understanding Luisa’s universal warmth: the family patriarch. Despite how clearly his daughters love and rely on Luisa, their father never fully recognizes her as part of the family. It’s a painful dynamic that many LGBTQ viewers will recognize immediately.
The partner who is embraced by everyone except the one person whose acceptance feels most loaded.
What makes Luisa’s situation particularly compelling is why the father keeps her at arm’s length. It doesn’t appear to be simple homophobia (though that’s surely part of the architecture), nor is it simply his religion. Luisa simply won’t enable or excuse the patriarch’s trauma-inflicting behavior.
She sees it clearly, she won’t pretend otherwise, and that refusal to comply costs her his approval. In other words, his rejection of Luisa says considerably more about him than it does about her.
Paula, for her part, carries the weight of her father’s patterns in a different way. She has a fierce temper, and it’s not hard to connect that to growing up in this family. Her protectiveness over their relationship, over Luisa, reads as someone who has had to fight for her own love and dignity.
It’s complicated, real, and the show doesn’t flatten it.
The LGBTQ Representation in That Night Avoids Dreaded Trope
Here’s the thing that makes the queer storyline in That Night genuinely worth celebrating: outside of the father’s behavior, the lesbian couple is simply accepted. By the sisters. By the world of the show. Their marriage isn’t treated as a scandal or a secret or a source of external conflict.
It just is.
And — minor spoiler — while That Night is not a feel-good series (no one really ends up in a particularly happy place by the end), this Netflix series does not resort to the tired and harmful “Bury Your Gays” trope. The lesbians survive.
I recognize it’s a low bar. And yet it remains one we must explicitly clear in 2026.
Paula Usero as Cris: A Beloved Face Returns to LGBTQ Audiences
For eagle-eyed queer TV fans, the casting of Paula Usero as the middle sister, Cris, carries an extra layer of meaning. Paula Usero is especially known for her role as Luisita Gómez in Amar es para siempre and its spin-off #Luimelia, where she plays one half of the lesbian romantic lead couple.
That storyline became something of a phenomenon. The couple of Luisita and Amelia spread like wildfire across the world. You saw people falling in love with their storyline from countries in every corner of the globe.
The response was so intense that it led directly to the dedicated spin-off: #Luimelia, which rescues the two iconic characters and transfers them from the late 1970s to the present day. All while being played by the same wonderful actors.
The spin-off even won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Spanish-Language Scripted Television Series. Don’t miss out on it if you can find it. It has 26 episodes of one of the most beloved lesbian couples in Spanish television history.
Seeing Paula Usero in That Night, despite playing a different character entirely, is a quiet treat for the community that fell in love with her as Luisita. She remains a compelling screen presence, and That Night uses her well.
Why Luisa Matters In That Night on Netflix
In a genre full of crime, cover-ups, and moral compromise, Luisa stands out precisely because she doesn’t compromise. She loves fiercely. And she’s trusted completely by the people who matter. Always refusing to make herself smaller for a man who won’t grant her the basic dignity of recognition.
That’s not just good LGBTQ representation — that’s good character writing, and important messaging to all women.
Nüll García brings a quiet authority to the role that lingers. In a show about how far people will go for family, Luisa quietly demonstrates what it looks like when someone is family — whether the patriarch admits it or not.
That Night (org. title: Esa noche) is streaming on Netflix worldwide now. All six episodes are available.
Womentainment recommendation: Watch That Night on Netflix and check out this spoiler-free review of it >
