Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Turn of the Tide’ is a Portuguese crime thriller set on an island where everything changes when tons of cocaine appear out of nowhere on its shores. The protagonist of the story is a young man named Eduardo Melo, who sees this event as an opportunity to turn his life around. He gets his friends involved in an elaborate plan that includes keeping the drugs hidden from their real owners, who happen to be very dangerous people, and from the cops, who have raided every house on the island to get every ounce of cocaine out there. Eduardo and the people around him are introduced to us through a narrator who doesn’t appear in the show until much later. Who is he, and what role does he play in Eduardo’s story? Let’s find out. SPOILERS AHEAD
Eduardo’s Silent Guardian: Narrator Revealed
‘Turn of the Tide’ is a complicated story where different pieces move at the same time, leading to an event that impacts all of their lives. Such stories often require a narrator to keep us in touch with the developments on every end so that we have the full picture. This is where the narrator of the Netflix series comes in. From the moment he starts to tell the story, we know it is not Eduardo because he is referred to in the third person.
We can tell that Eduardo and the narrator are connected because the latter keeps referring to him as “my man/boy Eduardo.” At times, the tone of the narrator suggests that he is proud of what Eduardo did and might even be bragging about it. This shows that the narrator loves Eduardo and wants his plans to succeed, even if they might not be as well thought out as they should be.
We eventually meet the narrator in the second half of the show when he is introduced to us as Uncle Joe. Joe is Eduardo’s mother’s brother and has been estranged from him and his father for a while. He is the only person Eduardo knows who went to America until he discovers that his parents lived there too. While his father and mother returned to the island, Joe remained in America and tried to make his dreams come true. However, things didn’t turn out as well for him, and he turned towards a life of crime. The law finally caught up with him, and he was deported back to the islands.
Since then, Joe has been living as a recluse in the jungle. He comes into the picture when Eduardo’s father contacts him to help save Eduardo from the Italian mob. He is not thrilled about it, but Joe accepts this responsibility because he loved his sister very much and feels guilty about not being able to do to prevent her death. He wants to make up for it by saving his nephew. When Eduardo and his friends show up at his door with the cocaine that’s gotten them into all this trouble, he discovers the true extent of the mess they’ve landed themselves in.
This gives Joe a deep look into everything that happened with Eduardo and his friends. Ultimately, he is the only one left around after Eduardo and Carlos sail to America, while Silvia decides to lead a different life. Others are either dead or don’t know the whole picture. This is why Joe is the perfect choice to be the narrator who can guide the audience through the complex web of interconnected events that result in all the blood and mayhem on Rabo de Peixe.
Read More: Is Eduardo Melo Based on a Real Drug Dealer?
