“Thicker than Water,” a French-language thriller featuring a strong female protagonist and a compelling narrative, has recently launched on Netflix. Several issues, from prejudice toward immigrants in France to gender discrimination at the workplace, have been deftly shown in this series, making it an intriguing experience to feel connected with the story and its characters. The protagonist of the show is an Algerian woman named Fara, who aspires to be a renowned TV news anchor. Yet, as an Arabian Muslim, she finds it extremely challenging to realize her ambition in a foreign nation, especially in a workplace environment where patriarchy predominates. However, true effort does pay off, as it did for Fara when she got an opportunity to be a television news anchor at her network, but shortly after she earned her big break, her family got entangled in a drug trafficking scandal due to some mistakes that her brother Selim committed. Let’s see how far Fara and her family would go to evade the authorities.

Spoilers Ahead

‘Thicker Than Water’ Season 1: Recap

Fara Benteyab, a freelance journalist from Algeria whose lifelong ambition was to work as a newscaster on television, finally achieved her goal after one of her news reporting videos went viral. Despite facing many challenges and difficulties in her job as an immigrant of the Islamic faith, she nevertheless succeeded in achieving her objective. Fara, a rebellious soul, never accepted that her media would print phony tales to attract attention. She valued real journalism that prioritized facts over false information. Nevertheless, just as Fara was about to ascend the ladder, a tragedy happened in her life, stopping her in her tracks. Selim Zahiri, her brother, became involved in drug trafficking, and while transporting narcotics in his car, he unintentionally ran over a police officer. Therefore, Selim became a wanted felon, and his sisters had to go through police interrogation because of this. Finally, Fara discovered that the vehicle her brother used had been parked inside her garage. Fara always stood up for the truth, but she was unable to oppose her brother and instead sought to shield him. She made the decision to burn the car down to hide her brother’s crime and protect him from the authorities. However, she had little idea that the vehicle she burned down was loaded with millions of dollars worth of illicit drugs, which also went up in flames along with the vehicle. The drug dealer was a ruthless mafia kingpin named Oumar, who was also working for another ganglord. As soon as he realized that the drugs had been destroyed along with the car, he began looking for Selim to finish him off. Yet, as Fara assisted her brother in leaving the nation, Oumar began spying on Fara and her sisters, threatening to harm them if they didn’t repay him. Although to save her neck, Fara pledged to pay him, the sum was 1.5 million dollars, possibly more money  than she’d ever seen in her entire life.

Did Fara Survive? Was Oumar Dead Or Alive?

Souhila and Yasmina, Fara’s sisters, sought to come up with numerous ways to pay for the money. Yasmina started to create some sort of start-up while she was working for the mayor, but her efforts were in vain. Souhila, a neurotic mother, could only pray to keep her mind at peace in the meantime. As this was going on, Fara hatched a scheme to get rid of Oumar. She used Lina, the daughter of Souhila, as a spy on Oumar’s drug hideout. With the assistance of Yasmina’s coworker, Lina was able to secure employment at an incinerator in Paris. But when she was spying on the gangsters robbing some stolen Louis Vuitton bags, a police raid nabbed her. As involving Lina in this plan turned out to be more dangerous than it seemed, Fara teamed up with Samuel, a federal officer, to snitch on Oumar. She played along with Oumar and his men and helped Samuel get to the location of Oumar’s drug hideout. Nevertheless, Oumar was informed before the police could arrive and take them into custody. Oumar suspected Fara of being a spy and abducted her to finish her off. Fara, however, still had a backup plan to stay alive and defend her entire family. As Oumar threatened Fara to kill her for her betrayal, she suggested negotiations, but the drug kingpin continued evoking fear in Fara’s mind. He kidnapped Lina so that Fara couldn’t betray him anymore. Fara proposed using her network to cover the destruction of the recovered narcotics, but Oumar and his men staged a terror assault on their network, threatening them into allowing the drug transit to occur. Fara encouraged the reporting journalist to cooperate with them after they threatened to kill everyone on television. The journalist on the scene was instructed to transport the car full of narcotics to Oumar, but without Oumar’s knowledge, Fara’s sisters stopped the car in the middle of the road and tampered with the actual drugs with bags full of flour packed in stashes. The sisters arrived at the site and delivered Oumars vehicle full of drugs and demanded the return of Lina safe and alive. Lina, on the other hand, managed to evade Oumar’s henchmen and flee. While Oumar tried to flee with the drugs despite his promise to bring Lina back, Fara slyly asked him to inspect the narcotics to see whether they were real. As Oumar checked the drugs, he found that Fara had yet again betrayed him. Meanwhile, the police came to the scene and held all of Oumar’s men at gunpoint. Fara and Oumar, on the other hand, got into a brawl and ended up shooting each other. Oumar was killed on the scene, but Fara survived.

What Happened To Selim?

Fara and her siblings all grew up in an extremely chaotic home where their father frequently acted distantly toward his responsibilities. And since their father abruptly abandoned his wife and children, Fara’s mother, Louiza, served her family on her own, which was extremely tough for her. Therefore, Selim’s only goal was to provide her mother with a carefree life so that she wouldn’t have to worry about money. Selim thus became involved in drug trafficking to make ends meet. He would just transfer the narcotics into that car, but a terrible accident altered everything. He became a wanted criminal when he escaped from the police officer and ran him over. Even if there was a chance Oumar would handle that, Selim’s sisters destroyed all the drug supply. Selim was forced to flee his family in order to save himself from Oumar, following in the footsteps of his father. Yet Louiza understood how to get her son to come back. She got in touch with her husband, who tracked Selim. After seeing his father, Selim released all of the frustration and pain that he had endured since he was a child. He claimed that his father was a major factor in his development into a desperate individual who would do anything to get some cash. After calming him down, his father decided to accompany his son back to their Parisian house. Once Selim returned to Paris, there was a chance that he might accept responsibility for his actions and try to keep his sister from being punished for his errors. Though it has not been portrayed in the series, we can assume that Selim’s fate is to end up behind bars for the crime he committed.

‘Thicker Than Water’ Ending Explained – How Does Fara End Up In Prison?

At the very end of “Thicker than Water,” we learned that Fara had survived and had been imprisoned—possibly for her involvement in the drug trafficking and her connection with Oumar. Towards the conclusion, we witness a police officer, and the actual drug lord Oumar used to work for interrogating Fara and asking her to return all the drugs. Yet Fara declined to reveal where she’d hidden the drugs and asked the drug dealer to get her out of prison; otherwise, she would burn down all the drugs as she did earlier. In the series’ concluding scene, we discovered that the real narcotics were hidden away in a vehicle that Lina and her companions were watching over. They shut the van door and exuded assurance that they were the only ones capable of transporting the narcotics. We could just bet on these girls being capable of anything, given how skillfully they snitched on a fierce gangster and intercepted the narcotics. But I don’t think Lina would just burn down these concealed drugs, which are worth a million dollars; I think she may sell them instead, bringing their family fortune and ensuring that they never have to worry about making a respectable life.

Final Words

Unlike the majority of the drug trafficking criminal programs we are bored of, “Thicker than Water” does not solely focus on the aspects of crime and drug selling. This show brilliantly depicts these ladies going through quite different struggles in their lives. Fara, a struggling journalist, battles racism and other forms of prejudice daily at work, while Yasmina, the sister who works tirelessly at the office and at home, never had emotional support from her husband. They both expressed themselves in a very relatable way, which made the tale more about the ups and downs of these women’s lives than the criminal plotline.

We could discuss a wide range of subjects in “Thicker than Water,” none of which were very preachy in their presentation while still being able to get the point across. For instance, when Fara had to dye her hair blonde at the program, she initially kept quiet, but later, at the end of the series, she appeared with her curly haircut unapologetically, which is a subtle approach to depicting a non-violent protest. Even Souhila was depicted in a more realistic manner, reflecting how much a mother should care about her children in contemporary culture, but she also defied the odds by understanding that she should never enslave her daughter and instead needs to understand her. These women had incredible mental growth via stunning self-realizations, which prompted the viewer to pursue them throughout the entire series. Even if it hasn’t been confirmed yet, it would be worthwhile for you to revisit these bold and unorthodox women’s lives if the series’ creators decide to extend it for a second season.