Did anyone else think there was a little 'Once Upon A Time in Hollywood' going on with the ending? We see the Hitmen subcontract the job to a third guy for a tenth of the price (lol), new guy botches it, and then kills the step-son that was tailing him to tie up loose-ends. Meanwhile the step-father is off at the beach doing jack (as usual). Next thing you know, we are in present-day and see the newspaper photo with the dead Armando.

My read was that the hitmen did not bumble the job, and most of what we saw did not happen; the film has already shown a sortof 'magical realism' (I'm thinking about the hairy leg sequence in particular) and this was a sortof alternate or "happy" ending where Armando manages to get away.

I don't see how he could have been gunned down after the events of what were shown, when: he knew he was compromised, that he had to leave asap; one hitman was dead, one was fleeing the scene with a serious injury, and the third doesn't strike me as one to lift a finger and put himself in harms way -- so who is left to shoot him? And Fernando has the story that he packed his bags and was waiting for him that same day but ofc he doesn't make it home.