The importance of mutual understanding and compatibility between players in any doubles sport can never be understated, and that reaches a whole new level when it comes to ice dance, which requires great bonding and awareness between participants. Depending on your tolerance of teenage drama, you will either enjoy or detest the intrigue of romantic entanglements explored through the sports in Netflix’s latest series, Finding Her Edge. Even if that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, the series, adapted from Jennifer Iacopelli’s novel of the same name, which was inspired by Jane Austen’s “Persuasion,” is bound to amaze viewers with the way it explores themes of family legacy, psychological impact, and the challenges involved with the world of professional sports.
Spoiler Alert
Why Did Adriana Leave the Rink?
Finding Her Edge revolves around the Russo ice skating dynasty, the struggles they face to hold on to their family legacy while trying to adapt to increasingly demanding situations, and how they cope with their increasingly troubling interpersonal predicaments. Celebrated pair skaters Will and Sarah won the Olympic gold and founded Russo Rink with the aim of creating a lasting legacy by forging champions from upcoming generations. Their three daughters, Elise, Adriana, and Maria, turned out to be accomplished skaters, excelling in different formats. A headstrong, proud, and confident Elise is a champion solo skater, while Adriana and Maria are brilliant ice dancers. Sarah, who, according to her best friend, Camille St. Dennis, always had the soul of an ice dancer, trained Adriana and her first partner, Freddie, and the pair had all the markings of future legends. However, after Sarah’s sudden and tragic demise, Adriana’s life took an unfortunate turn as she took it upon herself to help her father run the family rink. Freddie and Adriana were romantically involved with each other, and personal tragedy coupled with responsibility towards her family prompted Adriana to withdraw from him. Adhering to the final wish of her late friend, Camille joined the rink to support the Russos in training the athletes, and with Adriana’s retirement, Will put his sole focus on Elise, whom he wants to see become an Olympian gold medalist, just like her mother. Two years later, at present, a reserved, mild-mannered Adriana has adjusted herself to the new reality, even though, like the rest of her family, she too hasn’t been able to cope with Sarah’s passing. Will, who has not been able to process his grief yet, has dedicated his everything to the rink, as he believes he will be able to honor the memories of his late beloved by upholding the legacy of Russo Rink. To do so, Elise’s success is of utmost importance; therefore, paying no heed to Camille and Adriana’s concerns, lately Will has been burning through cash to draw in sponsorships and advertising. In case you are not familiar with pro sports, it might come off as a shock to you that more often than not, optics beats skill and talent in the long run. However, too preoccupied with the singular goal of Elise’s success, Will has been ignoring mounting financial problems, which are going to put both the rink and the Russo household in extreme distress.
With the beginning of the new skating season, aspiring athletes have arrived at Russo Rink, where they will stay almost as extended parts of the family and train for qualifiers and the world championship. Adriana’s best friend, Riley Munroe, has partnered up with Freddie, who is returning to the Russos after two years. After reuniting with Adriana after two years, Freddie maintains that he has moved on—both in the personal and professional spheres of his life—but he still has feelings for her and holds a grudge against Adriana for leaving him, despite knowing her reasoning. On the other hand, belonging to an influential family with a socialite mother and politician father, a bratty yet talented ice dancer, Brayden Elliott, has arrived at Russo Rink as well, and Camille believes he could be a good partner to Adriana. But having left the rink two years ago, Adriana feels she has lost the spark for good and, without Freddie, can’t pair up with anyone else. Riley’s cousin, Charlie, is Maria’s best friend and ice dance partner. Unlike the rest of her family, who are obsessed with rink stuff, the youngest Russo, a composed, sharp, and starry-eyed Maria, who has a penchant for drama and Jane Austen’s literary works, wants to live a so-called normal childhood.
What Happened to Elise?
Otherwise a loving, caring father to his three daughters, in changed circumstances, Will has somewhat lost the parent within him while channeling his strict coach energy, and lately this has been affecting Elise’s mind. Following an exhibition performance, Elise gets distracted when Adriana mentions a minor issue with her form, and during the welcome party, her family’s financial troubles become apparent to her when the dealership repossesses their cars for payment issues. Elise has trouble gathering her mind, and this results in disastrous consequences when Elise loses her mental composure during the selections performance and suffers a nasty fall. However, more than physical impact, the incident leaves a deep mental scar from which she struggles to recover, developing a sort of rink-phobia. Since a very young age, an overachiever in her domain, Elise has only ever known success. For star athletes who have never tasted failure, the first pang can turn out to be life altering, and the same happens with Elise.
With years to go for Maria’s shot at the nationals and Olympics, Adriana decides to take on the responsibility of saving her family legacy by partnering with Brayden, whom she initially didn’t want to pair up with. Camille makes Will realize that in Elise’s absence, the only way a Russo can shine in the rink this season is if Adriana returns to the ice once again. However, after years of being out of practice and struggling with the idea of pairing up with someone else in the presence of Freddie, Adriana fails to sync up with Brayden’s rhythm, and the star skater decides to leave to seek better options at rival rinks. However, Camille’s advice about finding connection by opening up allows Adriana to convince Brayden to return to Russo Rink. The second-best solo skater of the Russo Rink, Katya, tries to assert dominance in Elise’s absence. Adriana’s return to the spotlight draws Elise’s ire, and she starts feeling left out as, unlike Adriana, she is habituated to being the center of attention. During the Russos’ bonfire party organized to celebrate the beginning of a new season, Elise brings her jock, hockey player boyfriend, Weston, and his team, who get involved in a scuffle with the skaters. It should be mentioned that before the selections, Elise had hooked up with Brayden, who got involved in a fight with Weston during the bonfire party. Weston’s mother, Sheriff Mitchell, arrives just in time to break up the fight. Later on, while formally inviting Brayden to be a part of the team, Will asks him to keep his on-and-off-the-rink behavior in check so Russo Rink’s reputation doesn’t get ruined. To fund the rink’s expenses, Will takes his daughter to a shrewd, conservative investor’s daughter’s birthday party, where they have to perform in the presence of a crowd of socialites. Adriana showcases a great performance, whereas Elise’s rink fright is still dragging her down. At the party, the Russo sisters briefly connect. Maria, who sympathizes with the investor’s daughter’s predicament of having to live following the whims of her snobbish parents, delivers an electrifying performance and shows her individuality by swapping the intended traditional, classic tone of her performance with a metal one. Unfortunately, even though her performance is praised by everyone, including the investor’s daughter, the crooked businessman lambasts Will for going off track, and withdraws financial support. Elise further learns about how deep the financial crisis really is, and detesting how Will is still in denial, she decides to leave her family and stay at Weston’s place.
Initially, Brayden and Adriana have a hard time syncing with each other’s rhythm, especially when Brayden refuses to practice Sarah’s routine, which she had set for Freddie and Adriana all those years ago. Freddie, while keeping his distance from Adriana, helps Brayden to see the error in his ways, and he eventually agrees to follow Sarah’s routine—after a training session with Freddie. Will invites Fraser, a journalist for a popular sports magazine, to up the buzz for the athletes of Russo Rink. Brayden refuses to appear in front of the press, and later opens up to Adriana by mentioning his sordid childhood experience of being swarmed by media during the separation of his neglectful parents, which left a major impact on his psyche. Adriana assures Brayden that she will handle the press and convinces him to remain present. Sensing tension among the family members, Fraser decides to get statements from Elise—whose jealousy of Adriana prompts her to foul-mouth her prospect of success. The report published by Fraser damages Russo Rink’s reputation, and later, a guilt-ridden Elise confesses to Maria about her role in this.
With Brayden and Adriana’s partnership becoming rock solid within a short span of time, Team Russo sets out to take part in qualifiers, and a night before their performance, Brayden and Adriana sneak out to a club to ease their minds. In the heat of the moment, the couple kiss, and as a stranger secretly snaps a picture of them together, rumors about them possibly being together go viral in no time. Riley and Freddie qualify for the world championship. Despite delivering a brilliant performance, Brayden and Adriana fail to take the second spot in the qualifiers due to the judges being biased following Fraser’s damning report, and in anger, Brayden leaves Adriana after lashing out at her. However, during a sponsorship gala, Brayden returns and reunites with Adriana and apologizes for his mistake. Miraculously, the duo get a shot at the world championship when the top-spot-holders are revealed to have doped. Adriana decides to use the rumor of them being a couple to build better optics, which will help them sway public opinion and influence the decision of the judges in the world championship. They set the ground rule of minimum public display of affection and not getting romantically involved with anyone else, at least until the season ends. Freddie appears dismayed after mistaking Brayden and Adriana to be a real-life couple, and in a troubled state of mind, Elise makes out with him. Riley and Adriana notice this, and wisely, both of them decide to focus on their performance instead. Riley initially believed that she had feelings for Freddie, but at present she realizes that is not the case after all. However, she confides in Adriana that, given how much things have changed ever since she joined Russo Rink, she can’t help but realize that, as a person of color who doesn’t belong to a family with a skating background, she has to work twice as hard to achieve half as much as Adriana has done in no time.
Maria Chooses Her Own Path
Since she was young, Maria had looked up to her eldest sister, Elise, who taught her how to skate, and at present, Maria can’t even remember the person Elise used to be. She directly calls out Elise for kissing Freddie, and learning about this, Weston breaks up with her. Elise returns to the Russo household and tries to reconcile with Adriana, to no avail, as she is absolutely furious after learning Elise tried to sabotage her chance at the qualifiers by badmouthing her to the journalist. A dejected Elise meets with Maria and opens up about her struggles with mental health. Skating had been everything in Elise’s life, her source of joy, pride, and her shot to fame; without it, she doesn’t know who she really is. Maria helps Elise to recognize that a sport cannot define her as a person, and taking her back to their favorite rink helps her sister to skate once again. It’s almost a full circle moment for the sister duo; Elise taught Maria to skate, and now it is her turn to relearn with Maria’s help.
In light of recent events, especially seeing her two sisters struggle to hold on to the family legacy and get involved in complicated interpersonal situations and seeing her father wagering it all to cling to a failing dream, Maria decides not to make the same mistake, and the day before going to the world championship, she bails on her partner, Charlie. Later, as Elise finds her, Maria confesses that she no longer feels that she has to carry the burden of the family legacy, and wants to enjoy a normal school life with her friends. Charlie is initially disappointed with Maria for such a sudden and somewhat irresponsible decision, given his future as an athlete is influenced by it as well, but eventually he comes around.
Freddie faces a personal crisis when his recovering, formerly alcoholic mother tries to return to his life. During the final practice before Team Russo sets out to Paris for the world championship, a distracted Freddie collides with Adriana, who saves his life and career by stopping him from getting a concussion. Brayden, in whom Freddie confides about the entire situation, decides to keep it a secret from Adriana, but she eventually learns about it after Elise mentions Mrs. O’Connell’s presence in Russo Rink. Adriana meets with Freddie to help him to cope with his personal crisis, and in a vulnerable moment, the duo come close. Later, the couple give in to their feelings and kiss, resulting in a messy situation for Adriana right before the biggest test of her career so far. The Russo sisters come together while reminiscing about their mother, with Camille acting as a strong emotional support, who advises Adriana to wear Sarah’s skating wings to honor her memory. Elise shows remarkable leadership qualities in Will’s absence and proves she is ready to make amends for her past actions.
Under extreme financial pressure, Will is about to lose both the rink and the house, and in order to provide for the travel expenses of his daughters, he has no other option but to sell the gold medals he and Sarah won at the Olympics. In a gut-wrenchingly emotional moment, Will breaks down after seeing Adriana has chosen to wear skating wings in her costume, just like her mother. Will laments that he is going to lose everything Sarah built and, despite all his efforts, will not be able to honor her legacy. Camille, always the dependent, caring presence in the Russo family, hangs around to shoulder Will’s burdens and assures him that Sarah’s legacy is not merely her achievements; it will forever live on with the love they share for their children.
What Will Happen to Russo Rink?
A day before the world championship in Paris, Brayden finds out that Adriana has become romantically involved with Freddie. Even though Adriana only pretended to be in love with him for the optics, Brayden fell for her for real, and he feels betrayed at Adriana’s decision. Freddie initially distances himself from Adriana after learning that she was in a make-believe relationship with Brayden, just for the optics, but later, a conversation with Riley allows him to realize that he is riding the high horse for not being able to replicate something similar. Brayden tries his best to convince Adriana to break things off with Freddie, but to no avail, and a heated argument follows between the two mere moments before their performance. However, possibly the bitterness, coupled with longing for love, brings out their best performance, as Brayden and Adriana win the world championship. Brayden walks away from Adriana right after this, leaving her all alone in the closing ceremony performance as Adriana enters the rink, wearing a winged costume to honor Sarah’s memory.
Will only recently learned that Maria is going to quit skating, and fear and sadness of failure engulfed him for the briefest amount of time. However, as Maria and Elise join their sister in the rink, seeing them perform together, a teary-eyed Will realizes the truth in Camille’s words. No matter whether he manages the rink or not, Sarah’s dreams will be realized with their three daughters. Which is why, when Camille brings up the proposal from rival Voltage Rink to give up coaching and ownership of Russo Rink in exchange for the house, Will agrees.
Months later, Russo Rink has been overtaken by Voltage, Will has shouldered his responsibilities as a father, and Elise has taken on coaching duties. Camille has paired Adrian with Freddie for the big stage, and as the season ends, they face off against familiar faces in the practice. Riley has joined Voltage Rink and partnered with Brayden, and the frenemy relationship between these two pairs will be the focus of the upcoming season of Finding Her Edge.
