Diksha Sundriyal
The third season of Netflix’s ‘Turn of the Tide’ (originally titled: ‘Rabo de Peixes’) brings the story of Eduardo and his friends to an end. It all began with a shipwreck that brought tons of cocaine to the island’s shores. Eduardo and his friends thought that the drugs could be their key to escaping their lives on the island, but getting involved in the crime further pulled them down, making it impossible for them to leave their new lives behind. In the third season, they learn an important lesson, where it becomes clear that their island town was never the problem. They had been trying to run away from the wrong things, and now that they know better, they intend to change things for their people. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Turn of the Tide Season 3 Plot Synopsis
Following the events of the second season, Eduardo is released from prison about three years later. A lot has changed in the town since he left, particularly when it comes to his friends. Silvia and Rafael are raising their son, while he coaches the local school’s football team, and she tries to run a business with her mother. Carlinhos has found a job as a singer on one of the cruise ships off the coast of the island. Eduardo discovers that tourism, because of the cruise ships, has boomed in the past couple of years, but it has also killed the fishing industry, which means the local fishermen are basically out of work.
Even after having spent the past few years of his life in prison, Eduardo has revenge on his mind. His uncle, Joe, was killed due to the conflict that ensued after a shipment of drugs went missing. Eduardo wants to find out who stole the drugs and what they did with it. At first, he tries not to involve his friends in this investigation, but then Rafael finds out about it, and everything spirals from there. Meanwhile, Paula, who has lost her job as a police officer, is looking for her daughter, who went missing three years ago. That night, Paula was chasing after Eduardo and his friends, leaving her daughter, Mariana, alone at home. Someone broke in and took her daughter, and Paula has been looking for her ever since.
Paula’s obsession with finding Mariana leads her to ignore her other daughter, which is pointed out to her by Pedro, her boyfriend. He is also a journalist and is focused on the mayoral candidate, Cristina. While she presents herself as a savior of the town, he believes that there is something else going on with her. Meanwhile, Eduardo and his friends become disillusioned with what has happened to the people of the town because of the corruption and politics. To change things, they become the Night Vigilantes, working in the cover of the night to expose the wrongdoings of the people who serve no one but themselves.
What was Canto and Cristina’s Plan?
The search for the stolen drugs from last season leads Eduardo and his group to all sorts of places and things, but eventually it turns out that the whole thing had been unraveling in front of them all along. From the Season 2 finale, the audience knows that it was the unassuming Rockefeller of the Azores, Commander Canto, who had stolen the drugs from right under the nose of the Italians. Unlike the criminal gang, he had no intention of expanding his operation and staying in the drug market, but he had eyes set on the bigger prize: the island itself. Canto knew that the stolen drugs had been nothing but trouble, so he sold them as soon as possible. Because it was a pretty large quantity, he made a lot of money, or at least enough to buy out anyone wanting to sell their land in Rabo de Peixe.
Over the 3-4 years that Eduardo spends in prison, Canto uses the money to buy as much land on the island as possible. The reason for this was the proposed construction of a port to boost tourism on the island. Over the years, the cruise line industry, in which Canto also had a stake, had boomed significantly. At first glance, it seemed like a great thing, because the incoming tourists and the presence of cruise ships meant more business and job opportunities for locals. However, the increased number of ships also disturbed marine life around the island, leading to a significant decline in fish numbers. As a result, the locals, most of whom depended on fishing for their livelihood, slowly found their only source of income slipping away.
With no money coming from fishing, the locals became more desperate, making it easier for Canto to push them into selling their land. The more land he had, the better it would be for him once the port was constructed, and the price of the land skyrocketed on the island. However, his entire plan depended on the construction of the port, which is why he spent a lot of money backing Cristina, who had presented herself as an independent politician concerned with the well-being of the island. Her optics made her a promising candidate, as she talked about cutting down on crime and drugs and bringing peace to the island. But in reality, all she wanted was the power that comes with the office.
Are Canto and Cristina Arrested?
After discovering Canto’s real plans for Rabo de Peixe, the Night Vigilantes decide to expose them to the whole world. A hitch in the plan comes when Eduardo is arrested after Paula shows up at Banha’s house to confront him for her daughter’s death. To save him, his friends, along with the rest of the town, protest outside the police station, and he is let go. This shows that their movement has evolved beyond vigilantism and that people are ready to take power back for themselves. To people like Canto, the protest shows that Eduardo and his friends have amassed the power to influence public opinion, so he considers using it in his own case. At this point, Canto has no idea that Eduardo and his friends know about his and Cristina’s true plans.
So, the billionaire invites Eduardo to speak at Cristina’s election campaign, believing it will influence voters to vote for his candidate. However, the Night Vigilantes have other plans. They use this opportunity to expose everything, and that’s exactly what Eduardo does when he is called on stage. He wears the mask to show that he is speaking as a Night Vigilante and reveals the evidence that he and his friends uncovered, which shows that Canto has been using drug money to fuel his personal interests. During the speech, Cristina realizes that she is about to lose everything, so she tries to flee. However, the Night Vigilantes have already secured all the exits. Silvia finds her trying to escape from the bathroom window. She convinces the politician to go forth and speak against Canto, saving herself in the process.
Cristina agrees to do it, believing that she might still save her public image. But by ratting out Canto’s plan, she incriminates herself, confirming to the public that she has been privy to his intentions all along and has been going along with his plans to suit her political motives. Now that the public knows the truth, the Night Vigilantes have done their job, but that doesn’t mean Canto and Cristina will go to prison. While there might be an investigation into him about selling drugs, he has enough money to bury anything against him. Cristina’s credibility, of course, is gone, and there is no way she is winning the elections. Moreover, now that the public knows the whole story about the port, they will continue to fight against the capitalist mindset that is out to destroy them.
What Happens to Rabo de Peixe? What Happens to Eduardo, Rafael, Silvia, and Carlinhos?
Throughout the season, the tension continues to build as Eduardo and his friends try to restore power to the people. This seems to manifest in the town’s physicality as weird things start to happen. Several people have noted that the animals are behaving erratically. The reason for this behavior comes to light in the finale, when it is revealed that the dormant volcano at the center of Rabo de Peixe has gone active. The explosion occurs at the moment when Canto and Cristina are publicly exposed by the Night Vigilantes. Evacuation is carried out, with locals told to leave their homes and head to a safe space. However, the Night Vigilantes are not the ones to run away so easily.
As the cops chase after them, Eduardo and his friends go back into the town against the warnings about the erupting volcano. As the ash falls down on them, the cops decide that it is not worth the risk to chase after the local criminals while a volcano blasts ash and lava on them. Meanwhile, the group continues their journey into the town that is entirely empty due to the evacuation. They head back to Eduardo’s house, where they decide to rest for the night. Not knowing what to do next, they decide to go for a swim on the boat Eduardo had bought earlier in the season. They stop a short distance in the ocean, from where they can still see their small island and the volcano that is unraveling in full force now.
Silvia comments that the port is definitely not getting built now, which means that Canto’s plans are in vain and the town is basically saved from his capitalistic greed by nature itself. They also start to ponder the lives they would have lived if everything had gone well. Carlinhos dreams about being a successful touring singer, while Rafael dreams of becoming a successful football player and then coming back home to coach the local kids. Silvia dreams about being a good mom to her son while also running a successful business, representing artists like Carlinhos.
When Eduardo wonders where he is in all of their dreams, they say that, of course, he is in America, which is what he had always dreamed of. To this, Eduardo says that his dream has changed. Now, Rabo de Peixes is his America, and this is where he wants to be, no matter what happens next. This shows that he has grown out of the dream that he chased after so hard that it led him deep into the world of crime. After all that has happened, he knows that being with his friends and his people and living a peaceful life is what he has wanted all along. If he needs to fight, it will be for his town and his people, and that is the purpose of his life now.
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