In Thicker Than Water, in an attempt to save her brother, Fara, a journalist, and her sisters get entangled in the drug business of a gangster. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Fara Bentayab has worked for years at 24 News, and after lots of struggle, the channel will finally announce her as the new presenter. She dreamed of becoming the first female news presenter of Arab heritage on French national TV, and that dream is coming true.
Things turn the other way around, as, at the last minute, she gets replaced by a girl who has been working there for only six months. The decision disappoints her, and she decides to pour out her frustrations live.
She calls out the channel for showing fake news, and soon the video of hers goes viral. Everyone on the internet starts talking about her, and Fara gets fired from the channel.
Fara knows she wouldn’t find comfort at home either. Her sisters, Yasmina and Souhila, feel she dug her own grave after years of study and sacrifice.
Only Fara’s mother understands the situation. She invites Fara home and calms everyone down, reminding them that it’s the first day of Ramadan.
Fara’s brother, Selim, brings more problems into their lives when he asks Fara to offer him a place to park a vehicle he has. Fara forgets about that vehicle later, and at dinner, she receives good news. She is being called back to present at 24 News because people on the internet supported her and called out the channel.
Unfortunately, moments later, cops knock on their door, along with Souhila’s daughter, Lina. Apparently, Selim ran a red light on the way out of the city and also injured a cop while escaping.
Fara and her sisters don’t know where their brother is. They believe he must have had reasons to run away. They come to see Selim’s car in Fara’s garage. The cops already know that Selim visited Fara.
To protect him for now, the sisters get rid of the car by burning it down in an area where riots have been frequent. The only takeaway is that they don’t know there are drugs hidden inside the car. Some of the drugs are destroyed, while some aren’t; they are later discovered by the cops.
Mayo and Ketchup, two gangsters working for Oumar Diawara, come looking for that car and don’t find it in the place where Selim left it. They confront him, and when Selim approaches Fara, he is left devastated to learn that they destroyed the car.
Aware that Oumar will kill him, Selim plans to escape the city, and Fara helps him do so. When Oumar fails to track Selim, he visits Fara. The stash inside the car was worth 1.5 million, and he wants it back before the end of Ramadan.
Mayo and Ketchup also find out that the Head of the Narcotics Division, Samuel, has been trying to get some answers from Fara. To take him down, Oumar’s men send Fara a video involving Walid, Fara’s ex-fiancee, and the cops, including Samuel, dealing with each other.
Oumar wanted this to air on Fara’s news channel. Fara doesn’t agree to air it right away, which leads Oumar to set her mother’s house on fire.
After realizing how vicious Oumar can be, Fara informs Walid that she is airing the video and he needs to skip town. Moments after it is aired, Walid is killed outside his house.
Walid’s death puts pressure on Fara, who knows they need to return Oumar’s money or else he will kill her entire family. She plans to send a person of hers inside the recycling center, where drugs are incinerated, and steal them from there.
With the help of Yasmina, Fara sends Lina inside, but she gets caught by the cops as they come to catch some people trying to steal luxury handbags near the incinerator.
Involving Lina in this makes Souhila furious; she confronts Fara, and soon an argument ensues between Fara, Souhila, and Yasmina. They fall apart, and Fara is left with no option but to consider working with Samuel.
Samuel and Fara planned to play with Oumar by lying to him about a police raid on one of his hideouts. Fara does the job of lying, and she is taken to the place where Oumar moves his drugs.
During her time there, Fara learns that Oumar himself is more or less like a supplier, who is responsible for delivering these drugs to others. The plan isn’t successful, as the cops manage to get their hands on the drugs but not Oumar and his men, who escape at the right time.
Thicker Than Water ending explained in detail:
Does Oumar give Fara another chance?
Oumar acknowledges that Fara has betrayed him. Mayo and Ketchup kidnap Fara and bring her to Oumar. Before he can make a hasty decision of killing her, Fara assures him that she really intended to give him his gear, as in the drugs, back.
She asks Oumar to contact his girlfriend, who bailed Lina out. Through her, Oumar learns that Fara attempted to break into the recycling center and steal his gear. He offers Fara another chance but decides to keep Lina with him until his gear has been delivered.
How does Fara’s new plan play out?
Fara and her family comes together to save Lina from the clutches of Oumar. They start working on their plan, which involves making drug packets with flour inside.
Fara also looks forward to presenting the news involving the cops destroying the drugs at the recycling center. The plan is put into motion, and according to that, Oumar and his men take the studio of 24 News hostage while the news of cops destroying the drugs is played live.
The cops are told to put the drugs in a car and send it with the correspondent covering the news at the recycling center. The cops don’t agree, but when they are reminded that the news of them choosing drugs over the lives of these journalists will be aired live, they are left with no option.
The drugs are sent in 24 News’ van. Fara’s sisters stop that van midway. They mix the flour packets with the drug packets, probably to have leverage of their own over Oumar.
Oumar and his men then leave with Fara for the location where they are going to give Lina to them in exchange for the drugs.
Who dies during the exchange?
While Oumar’s gear is delivered, Lina breaks free from Mayo, who was bringing her to the location where they are going to have an exchange.
Oumar learns about this and prepares to leave after assuring the sisters that Lina will come to them. Fara and the sisters don’t buy his words. They pull a gun on him and ask him to check what is inside the packets.
After finding flour inside the packets, Oumar pulls a gun on Fara too. The cops arrive, and both Oumar and Fara end up shooting each other. Oumar is shown dying. Fara, on the other hand, does make it out alive.
In the prison, the man Oumar was going to send the gear to meets Fara and asks her where the gear is. She demands them to be taken out of the prison in exchange for that gear, and if anything happens to them, they will burn it down.
It is also revealed that Selim returned with his father. He walks into the police station voluntarily. It isn’t revealed if he is about to surrender himself or not.
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