It’s Much Bigger Than us
Episode 7 of Invisible City begins with a closer look at what happened during the ominous intro in episode 1. Curupira lost control after his family were killed, spouting flames from his head. This explains why he went after the hunter to begin with. We then cut back to the present as Ibere cradles the lifeless form of Isac and struggles to control his rage. Hot tears sting his cheeks as Ines lends her voice, telling Ibere to return to his true self. As wind blows and consumes them both in a whirlwind of anger, Isac’s body disappears leaving the flame-bearing legend to sit in stunned silence. Meanwhile, Ivo bundles Eric in the back of the police car as he’s taken away down to the station. At the same time, Luna is brought back home to Junuaria. Eric’s time in prison doesn’t last long though, as Camila shows up and frees him from his cell. Together, they race back up to the village again. Eric is determined to find Curupira, who’s back in the forest and on the hunt. Back in the village, chaos manifests in the form of a mighty wind blowing through, threatening to sweep them off their feet. Cico promises not to make trouble for anyone as he leaves and heads off into the forest. When Joao returns, he collects all the villagers, the wind finally subsiding, and tells them that Alfonso is to blame for the fire and what’s happened. As he walks away, Fabiana goes into labour. Camila does her best to get through to Eric as he continues to wrestle with this Dry Spirit inside him. They’re not alone in the woods though and after Camila tries in vain to help, Cico awakens and finds himself face to face with Joao. He throws his arms around his Father and apologizes as they both catch sight of Ibere in the distance. As all our characters converge in the woods, darkness descends leaving the illuminated flames of Curupira to dance around the forest. This, of course, mirrors the scenes from episode 1 bringing everything back full circle. Eric does his best to fight back against the Dry Spirit, with Camila channeling her powers as best she can to help. Ibere throws his spear, impaling Eric as he grabs the stick and fights back. It’s Ines who stops this getting worse, turning into a giant butterfly and attaching itself to Eric’s face. Eric, awakening from his ordeal, stabs himself in the chest and awakens in a pool with Gabriela standing in white in a distance. This seems to be purgatory or the afterlife of some description. She tells Eric he has a big journey ahead and mentions how he’s one of them now. This isn’t his time and he still has work to do. And just like that, Eric returns to our world. As Ibere grabs Eric and takes off with Ines and Camila, Cico, Joao and Marcia can only watch in stunned disbelief from afar.
The Episode Review
The finale to Invisible City ends with a trademark Netflix cliffhanger but also some closure to the storylines we’ve seen bubble up across the season. What happened in the woods that fateful night is finally revealed while each of the different characters have a compelling enough arc to see this through to its conclusion. Ines’ subplot is arguably the weakest though, with her motivations still not 100% clear by the end. However, the promise of a second season may well help to go some way into explaining what’s happening. The actual end fight does seem quite ambiguous but at a guess, it seems like Ines used her powers to allow Eric to face this Dry Spirit in his subconscious mind, the same way he fought Ines when she tried to control him before. From this moment, Eric then stabbed himself in the chest in order to dispel the curse and get rid of it. However, the rules around this spirit still aren’t clear – has it possessed someone else? Will the Dry Spirit attack again? Or is it gone completely? This does leave things a little unresolved but again, a second season could go some way to explain away some of these issues. Invisible City has felt like a medley of different shows rolled into one, with influences from The Outsider, Green Frontier and American Gods to name a few. The result is a relatively decent fantasy offering, one that leaves the door wide open for a follow-up to build on the foundations set here. Based on this showing, I really hope this one is renewed as there’s some definite potential here for another big Brazilian hit.
