Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Obliterated’ introduces the audience to Ava Winters, a sharp and witty CIA operative who leads a team of people who were specifically chosen to be the best in their fields. Being a leader is not an easy task, especially when you have the fate of the world resting on your shoulders, but if anyone can do it, it’s Ava. While her boss has all the faith in the world in her, this time, things feel a little off. He is worried that the emotional baggage of the past might hamper her judgment, and that’s what seems to have happened when Las Vegas finds itself a target of the biggest terrorist attack it has ever known. Ava’s past and what happened to her fiancé become the center of conflict.
The Death of Ava’s Fiance Opens the Possibility of a Complicated Romance
A flashback in an early episode of ‘Obliterated’ reveals that Ava Winters is not as crude and uptight as she might come off to her team. She likes to do things by the book, but she’s not the kind of person who doesn’t like having a good time. Still, she keeps a distance, or at least tries to, when the team decides to throw a rager. The reason behind this is Ava’s recent loss.
It isn’t until much later in the show that Ava tells Chad McKnight about the tragedy. He got a hint of it when their case was taken away by the FBI, and Ava’s boss wondered aloud if it was wrong for him to send her into the field too soon. She claims it wasn’t, which makes McKnight wonder what the fuss was all about. Ava reveals that she was in love with an MI6 agent, which she clears out for McKnight is the British Intelligence Agency, not the Tom Cruise movie.
Ava and the British agent had been in love and were planning to spend the rest of their lives together. He proposed to her, and she said yes. All they needed was a little time off from their hectic and demanding jobs to set a wedding day and get hitched. However, things weren’t meant to be that way. Her fiancé went on a mission which went horribly awry. He was captured and killed, and that left Ava heartbroken and devastated.
Ava should have taken some time off to process her loss and come to terms with the death of her fiancé. Instead, she decided that it would be better for her to be consumed by her work. She didn’t want to have any spare time on her hands that would lead her to think about the fact that the man she loved was gone. Her boss, despite not wanting her to throw herself into work, gave her a job he knew would keep her occupied. He also trusted her abilities as a leader and knew that she was the only one who could take charge of the team.
While her fiancé’s death gives a tragic turn to Ava’s backstory, it’s also an interesting thing to have been added by the writers. It’s curious that Ava mentions her fiancé was captured and killed. She doesn’t talk about seeing his dead body, and there is no subplot that has Ava visiting his grave or dispersing his remains into the sea or something. In fact, the manner of his death suggests that she, or even the British Intelligence, never got to see his dead body.
This leaves the door open for his return because what if he never really died on the mission? Considering the timeline of the events, the fiancé is supposed to have died mere months before Ava was put in charge of the team. This means that there is a possibility that he might return and lead to a love triangle between him, Ava and Chad. But that’s all just speculation at the moment. For now, Ava is grieving an unimaginable loss and forming an unexpected bond with McKnight.
