Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Maledictions’ follows the story of a politician who finds himself at a crossroads when his daughter is kidnapped right as he is trying to stop a bill that will send his political career in a new direction. The story focuses on Governor Fernando Rovira, who is planning to prevent a water bill from passing and is gathering the support of all the representatives due to vote on it. A major wrench is thrown in his plans when his daughter, Zoe, does not show up at home after school. She is kidnapped by Roman Sabate, a close associate of Fernando, whom the politician trusted more than anyone else. As the events unfold over the course of three episodes, shocking truths come to light, threatening not just the bill but also Fernando’s relationship with his daughter and his career.
Maledictions Plot Synopsis
The series begins with Roman Sabate driving Zoe in the back of his car. It seems that she should have been picked up from school by her regular driver, Beto, but today, Roman has taken that charge. While he has picked her up before, even Zoe is confused about why he showed up today. Her suspicions increase as she doesn’t remember falling unconscious and wakes up with a headache. Her phone is also nowhere to be seen. Roman assures her that Beto was caught up in some work for her father and that she most likely left her phone at school. However, it doesn’t take the girl much to know that the man is lying to her.
Meanwhile, Zoe’s father, Fernando Rovira, is busy in his office, trying to gather the support of all the representatives who are due to vote on the water bill on Monday. It is Friday, so he has three days to make sure that the maximum votes are against the bill. At the same time, his daughter not showing up from school and both Beto and Roman being out of reach start to worry him. It turns out that Beto had been left alone in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, he is alive and finds his way to the nearest settlement, from where he calls Fernando and tells him that Zoe has been kidnapped.
When the cops are informed and the search for the girl ensues, it comes to light that she was seen with Roman. Since he is Fernando’s trusted man, everyone thinks she is safe. However, Vargas, who works for Fernando’s mother, Irene, has doubts. Eventually, it comes to light that Roman has a personal bone to pick with Fernando and his mother, has a deeper connection with Zoe, and is intent on letting the water bill pass even though he knows it will destroy Fernando’s aspirations about climbing further on the political ladder.
Is the Water Bill Passed? Why does Fernando Support It?
At the beginning of the show, we find Fernando aggressively opposing the water bill. In fact, his future hinges on whether or not the bill will be passed, and if it doesn’t pass, a whole new world of possibilities will open up for him. His intentions for this action are purely politically and financially motivated, and though this will cause environmental concerns, he doesn’t seem to care about them at all. In fact, in his interviews, he tries to push for a narrative that shows that if the bill is passed, the country will suffer economically. In the second episode, it is revealed that the work against the bill had been put in motion even before he became governor. More than a decade or so ago, when he was still a judge and was preparing to enter politics, he needed the support of a wealthy company called the Mapple Corps.
To appease them, his mother came up with a plan. She had legal control of a land that was supposed to have belonged to the indigenous communities, and she was ready to lease it to Mapple for mining lithium. If the mining in itself wasn’t disastrous for the environment, it would also have required an exorbitant amount of water, which would have been drawn from three villages nearby, leaving nothing for the locals. Worse, the mining activities would have further poisoned the water. The water bill would have prevented all this from happening, which is why Fernando and Mapple opposed it and didn’t want it to pass. By the show’s end, however, Fernando realises that this plan has been more important for his mother than for him, and he never really had a say in whether he wanted to support it. Worse, Fernando discovers that his mother had his wife, Lucrecia, killed, and she was ready to sacrifice Zoe as well, all in the name of serving his political success.
It becomes clear to him that he has been nothing but a pawn in his mother’s plans, and she will continue to use him as she wishes as long as he allows her to exert power over him. The fact that she has no regret for her actions shows him that if push comes to shove, she might even be ready to sacrifice him, and that’s not a chance he is ready to take. He thinks about killing her, but he doesn’t have it in him to be a murderer. So, he decides to kill her in a different way. He decides to take away her power by supporting the water bill, which means the deal with Mapple will fall through. With this act, he will be out of Irene and Mapple’s thumb and can begin to chart his own path, without their influence. He moves quickly, gathering allies by consolidating friendships with his enemies, and on Monday, when the vote happens, the water bill is passed.
Will Fernando Become President?
Before Fernando entered politics, he established a relationship with another politician named Capardi. Like everything else, their bonding relied on give and take. This means that as Fernando worked on his political ambitions, Capardi would wholeheartedly support him, but that would also mean Capardi receiving the returns. However, shortly before the vote on the water bill, Capardi discovers that Fernando is working on a coalition through which he intends to enter the race for the President of the country. Not only did he keep this move a secret from Capardi, but while making deals to form the coalition, he gave away the Health Department to someone else, when it had been expressly reserved for Capardi. This angers the man, and to sabotage Fernando, he tells Roman that Fernando was behind his mother’s accident all those years ago, which leads to Roman going behind the governor’s back, kidnapping Zoe, and forcing him to back down from the water bill.
Fernando was ready to leave Capardi behind because of his mother. Irene was the one planning the whole thing, and she didn’t care what was promised to Capardi when they befriended him. Now that he is useless to her, she is ready to dispose of him. So, when the time comes to oppose his mother, Fernando decides to befriend Capardi again. He offers him the Health Department and is even ready to make him his right-hand man going forward. This would put his ally in an unprecedented position, and it would work well for Fernando, as it would mean getting the support of all the people already on Capardi’s side. With them in his corner, he doesn’t need his mother or Mapple for his campaign.
With the water bill, he has already put a nail in the coffin of their future plans, so he doesn’t need to worry about them anymore. Further, Fernando has also decided not to be scared by the personal attacks coming his way. His mother tells him that he needs to let go of Zoe because if the truth about her parentage comes to light, it could reflect poorly on Fernando. Instead of waiting for someone to use it against him, he takes control of the narrative by coming clean about it on national television and offers nothing but honesty to the public. This is the first step he takes to secure their trust, which will undoubtedly help build his public image. With the proper political backing and the public’s trust, the road seems easier for Fernando. While it is not yet revealed whether his presidency is a certainty, it is confirmed that he will be a major contender for the post.
What Happens to Zoe and Roman?
At the beginning of the show, Roman is introduced as Zoe’s kidnapper. However, by the end, their relationship shifts drastically. It is revealed that he is her biological father, and this is not a shock to her because she has known about this for six years. Lucrecia told her the truth in her dying breaths, but Zoe decided to keep it to herself because she didn’t know if Roman cared about her at all. In truth, Roman hadn’t been ready to become a father. The only reason he slept with Lucrecia was because he wanted to help her and Fernando have a child, and they were the ones who asked for his help. Despite being biologically connected to Zoe, he never thought of himself as her father because it had been made clear to him that she would be Fernando’s daughter, in all senses of the term.
To his credit, Fernando did love Zoe with all his heart, and Roman never thought about contesting for the position of her father. This does not mean he did not care for the girl, but he never intended to tell her the truth or take her away from Fernando. However, when he kidnaps her and gets to spend some time with her, he realizes that he does want to get to know her, especially after he discovers that she already knows how they are connected. He doesn’t lie to her about why he didn’t tell her the truth before, but now that things are clear between them, he decides to be there for her. His desire to become her father is also encouraged by the fact that she wants to get to know him, too.
When everything is settled and he decides to take her back to Fernando, she tells him that she doesn’t want to go back. She wants to be with him and get to know him, and Fernando supports this, even though it pains him to let his daughter go. In the end, it is revealed that Roman will take care of Zoe indefinitely. This does not mean that Fernando has lost her forever. Perhaps, she will come back to him, considering that he has been a good father to her all along. For now, however, she wishes to get to know her biological father. So, she and Roman drive off together, with her behind the driving wheel. This shows that Roman has taught her how to drive, but it also means that she has the reins of her life in her own hands now, which is what she wanted all along.
