Aahana Swrup
‘Rivers of Fate’ (Originally titled ‘Pssica’) is a Portuguese drama that follows the unnerving story of the human trafficking ring that runs rampant in the Pará region of the Amazon. The Netflix show follows the narrative of three characters whose lives inadvertently become interconnected. Preá, aka Jonas, is a river pirate who half-heartedly follows the lifestyle of his feared father. On the other hand, Mariangel is a mother living a domestic life who has long detached herself from a life of violence. Both these individuals are pulled into chaos after Janalice, a young teenage girl, gets abducted by a group of traffickers. The inciting incident ends up entangling the fates of the three characters as Jonas and Mariangel embark on separate endeavors that might just end up delivering Janalice to her freedom. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Rivers of Fate Recap
Things start going downhill for Janalice when her high school boyfriend leaks a sex tape of her, tarnishing her reputation around the village. In the aftermath, the teenage girl’s family, especially her mother, Lizete, cracks down hard on her. On top of verbal and physical punishments, she ships her daughter off to the city to live with her aunt and help her out with the housework. Additionally, her parents also take away her phone, leaving her stranded in the new place. To make matters worse, the aunt has a sleazy boyfriend, Ramiro, who sets his sights on the young girl early on. Inversely, on the bright side, Janalice also makes a friend in the city, Dionete. However, the older girl seems to be a trouble magnet, who routinely ropes a homeless kid, Miltinho, into helping her steal in exchange for food.
Miltinho has been around in the city for quite some time. He’s searching for his older sister, Luzia, who went missing a while back. Dionete believes that the girl has likely already become a victim of trafficking. As such, Janalice reasons that they can find the girl through pornography apps online. Yet, the problem remains that no one has a phone between the three of them. When Dionete tries to get her boyfriend’s device from him, he tells her to bring Janalice around. Unbeknownst to the older girl, her boyfriend actually works for some dangerous people from the Tabaco gang, who are on the hunt for new trafficking victims. Consequently, once the teenager reluctantly comes around his lair, he abducts her.
Meanwhile, the raucous pirates of the Tabaco gang attack a family establishment late at night in search of a drink. During the altercation, they end up killing the owner, Mariangel’s husband, and her beloved son, Guilherme. Initially, she tries to go the legal route to get justice for her son. Yet, it soon becomes evident that the law wouldn’t be much helpful. As a result, she and Zé Do Boi, a friend and a surviving victim of the Tabaco gang, decide to track down the attackers and deliver them to their fates. On the other hand, once the kidnappers hand Janalice and four other girls to the Tabaco gang, Jonas instantly becomes beguiled by the girl. Even though he delivers her to gangster Zé Elídio, he promises to return for her and save her. Nonetheless, his attempts to convince his father to “buy” the young girl remain for naught.
Simultaneously, Janalice’s parents begin searching for her once the father, Pedro, realizes that his daughter has gone missing. He contacts Amadeu, a friend and a former police officer, who devotes himself to searching for his goddaughter. With a few useful tricks and contacts up his sleeve, he quickly picks up the teenager’s trail. Yet, with every passing day, Janalice is exposed to new horrors. Still, she refuses to stop fighting and undertakes various attempts at escape with the help of fellow trafficked girls, including Luzia. Nonetheless, despite a few close calls, she remains stuck in the horrifying nightmare. In the end, she finds herself in the French Guianan city of Cayenne, where she’s forced to work as a prostitute at the Coc d’Or club. Even so, her fighting spirit remains intact as she secretly plots her escape. Fortunately for her, two others, Jonas and Mariangel, are working toward the same end.
Rivers of Fate Ending: Does Janalice Escape? Does She Reunite With Her Mother?
Janalice’s narrative remains one of horror but also perseverance. The teenager is hurled into an unforgiving tragedy that remains out of her control at almost every turn. Although she tries to be vigilant and actively fights for her survival and freedom on numerous occasions, her efforts never seem to be quite enough. Additionally, there are several others who also seem to be concerned about her. Amadeu, the retired cop and her godfather, takes any and every measure necessary to track down the young girl. Yet, he only manages to get as far as Mayor Brazao’s birthday party, where Janalice and the girls are crudely being auctioned off as part of the festivities. However, he makes the mistake of trusting the Mayor, who has been in on the trafficking ring from the very start.
As such, Amadeu suffers a devastating death in the privacy of the Mayor’s office. Alternatively, Jonas, who becomes obsessed with Janalice, comes close to rescuing the girl before the traffickers can get her on the boat ride to Cayenne. Nonetheless, while the other girls with Janalice manage to escape, she still remains in the criminals’ clutches, headed for Coc d’Or. There, the teenager finds herself well and truly alone, without even the comfort of the other girls around her. Even so, she doesn’t give up. During her first night in the nightmarish place, she roams around to get a lay of the land and enquires about the security in the club from older girls, who have been trapped for longer.
The following night, when Janalice is set to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, she is prepared to carry out her plan. Although she doesn’t know it, Mariangel has a plan of her own. Using the help of an old contact, another fellow ex-soldier, she plans on getting the young girl out of the establishment. For the same reason, the associate, Cristobal, places his bid on the teenager in exchange for a night with her. The plan is for Cristobal to sneak Mariangel in through the window after the duo is sequestered into a private room. Nonetheless, before that can happen, Janalice makes her move, attacking the strange man with a drugged injection.
Janalice gets lucky, in that Jonas creates a ruckus at the head’s office around the same time. Therefore, an inner conflict breaks out in the club, allowing her to slip away unnoticed. Around the same time, Mariangel also fakes a fire emergency call to the authorities to further add to the chaos. In the end, all of this culminates in a disordered mayhem that allows the teenager to flee from the scene with Mariangel. However, in the aftermath, Janalice does not return home. Her mother continues to be hopeful that one day, her daughter will come back to her, even daydreaming about her homecoming. Nonetheless, she’s only ever greeted in any empty doorway. Although there were many elements that led to the young girl’s trafficking, her parents’ initial decision to abandon her in an unknown and unsafe place remains the inciting incident. By forsaking their daughter and putting her directly in harm’s way, Lizete and even Pedro, who later goes on to regret his choices, become complicit in their daughter’s abuse. Janalice recognizes the same and thus chooses to truly grant herself freedom by cutting herself off from her abusive roots.
Does Jonas Die? Why Did Janalice Leave Him?
Jonas plays an intriguing role throughout the narrative. Even though he’s introduced as a river pirate, partaking in a loot, an obvious reluctance remains evident in his actions. He and the other pirates are a crucial link in the long chain of abuse. They steal, abuse, and traffic people for their bosses, leaving behind a trail of victims in their path. Still, unlike the others, Jonas doesn’t seem to take pleasure in his criminality. In fact, this remains a vital point of contention between him and another pirate, Gigante. Perhaps Mariangel sees the same in the young man, which is why she spares his life even though he is one of the pirates who raided her house on the day of her family’s death.
Furthermore, shortly after he crosses paths with Janalice, he develops an infatuation with the girl. He seems to believe she’s the love of her life, which compels him to take on the role of a knight in shining armor who must rescue her from a horrifying future. For the same reason, even after continuously failing, Jonas shows up at Coc d’Or, prepared to bid on Janalice and take her from the current men who have entrapped her. He wants to take the girl away and escape into a domestic life with her. However, once he manages to get her away from the club in the chaos that unfolds, the girl reveals she has no intentions of running away with him. So far, Janalice has been friendly toward Jonas on multiple occasions, establishing that she would rather be with him than her abusers. However, all of this has only been a survival tactic.
Janalice knows that both the club owners and Jonas are only interested in having ownership and control over her. The only difference between them is that the latter disguised his interest in her as an obsessive “love.” In reality, he knows nothing about her and is only interested in her in a fanatical way, projecting his hopes and dreams onto her. Furthermore, the fact remains that it’s his own actions that delivered Janalice to her abuser in the first place. After facing so much abuse at the hands of people seeking control over her, the young girl has no interest in earning another master. For the same reason, she rejects Jonas, leaving him to die while she escapes with Mariangel, finally achieving her complete freedom.
Does Miltinho Find His Sister? What Happens to Luzia?
In a way, Luzia’s story remains a unique nucleus of the story. Janalice’s friendship with her younger brother, Miltinho, compels her to search for a phone, a quest that ultimately makes her an unfortunate target for abduction. Similarly, her brother’s continued efforts toward finding her allow Amadeu to team up with the kid and uncover many of the clues that lead him closer to his granddaughter. Meanwhile, a twist of fate brings Luzia into Janalice’s path while they’re both captives at Zé Elídio’s farmhouse. During this time, the two girls form a bond, finding little but crucial comfort in each other’s company. In fact, they continue to scheme possible escape methods together even when they’re brought to the Mayor’s house for his birthday party.
During the event, Zé Elídio forces the girls to drink drug-laced champagne to lower their inhibitions. However, Janalice pulls a trick that allows her to drink both her and her friend’s share of the alcohol. She reasons that one of them must remain sober if they want their escape attempt to be successful. Consequently, when a bidder is trying to drag her away, Luzia remains level-headed and more actively resistant to her abuser’s advances. As a result, her shouts attract the attention of Miltinho, who is hiding in the woods after making the trip with Amadeu. As the former cop intervenes, the siblings manage to escape from the area, bolting away from the mansion and toward the port. In the end, Miltinho finally reunites with his sister, as the duo hitch a ride on a boat. Although their future still remains uncertain, they can rely on each other’s company as they try to make their way back to their home village. Thus, much like Janalice, Luzia’s story also ends on a hopeful note, leaving the possibility open for her and her brother to find safety and happiness.
Read More: Where is Netflix’s Rivers of Fate Filmed?
