The Brazilian series “Invisible City,” created by Carlos Saldanha, tells the tale of a world that is co-habited by humans as well as certain mythical creatures. For centuries, these mythical creatures peacefully existed in the world, and they went about their business without interfering with the lives of human beings. But some recent events disturbed the delicate balance of the place, and a police officer from the environmental protection department found himself at the center of this whole dispute. “Invisible City” finds its inspiration in Brazilian folktales, and the characters that we are made privy to are not only intriguing but also possess a certain amount of depth. So let’s see what was happening in the Tore village that brought about a change in the power dynamics and the entire ecosystem.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Invisible City’ Plot Summary: What Is The Series About?
Eric was shattered when he came to know that his wife, Gabriela, had died in the forest fire in Tore village. He knew that it was not merely an accident and there was something more to it. Eric had lost track of time, and he didn’t know where his life was heading. His superiors in the environmental protection police unit believed that it was an open-and-shut case and there had been no foul play whatsoever, but Eric’s heart told him otherwise. Eric was thankful for the fact that at least his daughter was saved, but he was not able to be there for her emotionally because he was in a very chaotic mind-space. All his time was consumed by running after potential leads and trying to find that one loophole that would lead him to the truth.
One day, Eric saw that the dead body of a pink dolphin, which was quite a rare species in the area, had been washed up by the waves and come ashore. There were a few mysterious-looking people who were standing around it, and Eric asked them to move away as only the environmental police had the authority to look into the matter. He glanced at the dead dolphin and then looked back to find that all those people who were standing there had vanished into thin air. Marcia, Eric’s colleague, and good friend, also arrived at the scene, and together they loaded the body onto Eric’s vehicle to take it for an autopsy and get to know the reason behind the death. But just then, Ivo, Marcia’s senior, called and told her to immediately go to Tore village, where some issue had arisen, and the natives weren’t able to explain the anomaly. He specifically asked her to not take Eric with her, as he didn’t want him to get triggered by visiting the place where his wife had died. But Eric didn’t agree to be left behind, and he tagged along with Marcia. They reached Tore village to find out that a lot of fish had died for some unknown reason.
Marcia thought that it could be because of lack of oxygen or some other natural causes, but Eric had his doubts, and he told her that the possibility of a third party contaminating the waters couldn’t be denied at that stage. That piece of land was a conflicted property, as a big construction company had claimed that they were the rightful owners of the place. The locals said that their ancestors had lived there since times immemorial, so the company’s claims were fraudulent. But one of the natives, named Joao, who also worked for the company, was trying to convince the people of the Tore village to accept the offer. The company was offering proper compensation to the village folks, and Joao was trying to make them understand that they could start a new life in the city and get access to better opportunities. Joao’s father, Cico, had expressed clearly that he was not ready to accept the offer and give up his land as he felt that it could lead to a bad omen. Cico was a believer in the ancient ways and means, and he knew that there was a higher power that shouldn’t be meddled with. Contrary to the thinking of the current generation, he knew that not all folklore was a work of fiction.
Something unusual happened in the first episode of the series, “Invisible City”, when Eric opened his trunk to check the state of the pink dolphin, which had been lying there the entire day. Eric was shocked to see that the dolphin had transformed into a man, and he didn’t know what to do about it. He knew that the police were going to ask a lot of questions, and there was no chance that they were going to believe that a dolphin had transformed into a human. When Eric saw the face of the dead man closely, he realized that he had seen him before. It struck him that he had caught a glimpse of the man when he was talking to his wife over video call the day she had died in the forest fire. He realized that the man could be related to the death of his wife, and in a moment of dilemma, he hatched a plan and decided to drop the body of that anonymous man in the cedar forest in the Tore village so that the case came under the environment police department, and he would be able to officially investigate the matter.
What Was The Dry Body Curse?
Eric had a hard time convincing Ivo to not give the case to the homicide department as it was related to the ongoing conflict between natives and the construction company. Eric had realized one thing by the end of the first episode of the series, “”Invisible City””: that there were a few people living in the city under camouflaged identities who possessed supernatural abilities to do things that were beyond the perception of human beings. The man who was killed was named Manaus, and he was a part of the small community, which consisted of these supernatural entities who, on the face of it, looked like normal people. The leader of the community was a woman named Ines, and she ran a small cafe in the city named Cafofo. Eric initially considered that the construction company was behind the murders, but certain revelations made him understand that the truth was not as simple as it looked.
Camila, one of the supernatural beings, had tried killing Eric at the orders of her boss, though Eric had overpowered her, and that’s when Camila realized that he was no normal being. From a native of the Tore village named Fabiana, Eric got to know that Manuas was a mythical creature who had the power to transform into a fish whenever he wanted. Eric was desperate for answers, and in the third episode of the series, “Invisible City”, he went to Cico to understand what was happening with him. Cico told Eric that he was not hallucinating when he saw a man turning into a dolphin and a woman turning into a mermaid, and that these supernatural beings had co-existed with them for a very long time.
There was a reason why Ines, the leader of the supernatural community, wanted to kill Eric. She believed that an evil spirit had possessed him and was using him as a vessel to kill everyone in her community. Long ago, a man named Mr. Antunes had come to Tore village to hunt down the Curupira, a mythical creature who lived in the woods with his family. Mr. Antunes considered these supernatural beings abominations who didn’t deserve to exist on earth. He had made it his mission to not stop until he killed each and every mythical creature, but quite evidently, he had not been able to do so, and his dead body was found lying in the cedar forest. Cico had informed Ines about it, and she came to the scene and realized that Antune was an evil man whose dry body needed to be imprisoned so that it didn’t drain the life out of everything around it. So Antunes’ soul was trapped forever in the cedar forest, but somebody recently had opened the tomb, and the curse of the dry body had been set free.
After Camila comes to Eric’s side and refuses to follow Ines’ orders to kill him, Ines is not left with any other option but to send another trusted member of the community named Tutu to kill him. Tutu was also unsuccessful in killing Eric, and he died on the spot when he attacked him, though Eric had no clue how he had been able to overpower him. Eric didn’t remember anything as he had blacked out, though Ines and others didn’t believe that he was not as ignorant about the entire thing as he was pretending to be.
‘Invisible City’ Season 1: Ending Explained – Was Curupira Able To End The Curse?
Eric had gone through his mother’s case files and learned that he was Manaus’ son, which explained how he had been able to overpower Camila and even Ines when they tried to enter his subconscious mind. Eric couldn’t understand how he was always around these magical entities when they died, if he wasn’t the one who was killing them. Camila asked him to try to remember what happened on those days, but patches of Eric’s memory had been completely erased, and he was feeling more confused than ever. Eric had started to think that maybe he was responsible for all those deaths, including that of his wife, Gabriela. He wanted to know the truth, which is why, in the fifth episode of the series “Invisible City”, he went to ask for help from Cico, who made him conduct a ritual through which he got his entire memory back. The truth shocked Eric, and it made him scared too. He realized that his daughter, Luna, had been possessed by the evil spirit of Mr. Antunes, which explained why she had been behaving so weirdly over the past few days. The evil spirit had possessed Luna, back when she had come with her mother, Gabriela, to the village. The evil spirit made Luna kill her mother, and then cast a spell on Eric and made him kill the other mythical entities. Cico told Eric that the spirit’s natural inclination was to make a grown-up individual its vessel, and probably due to lack of options, it had been compelled to possess Luna.
Isac, the Saci, knew that if the spirit of Mr. Antunes was on the loose, then only the Curupira would be able to fight it. But the problem was that after Curupira’s family had been killed by Mr. Antunes, he had renounced everything and was living the life of a recluse in the city. Isac tried convincing him to fight for their cause, but it had no impact on the stubborn Curupira.
Though Cico had warned Eric not to go near Luna, he still went there and asked the spirit to spare the life of his daughter and possess him instead. The evil spirit readily left Luna’s body and possessed Eric. Meanwhile, in the sixth episode of the series “Invisible City”, Cico got to know that the owner of the construction company, Mr. Afonso, was the son of Mr. Antunes. Afonso was the one who had broken the tomb and released the evil spirit from the prison that Ines had created for it. Mr. Afonso had used Joao and deceived him by telling him about the bona fide intentions he had for his community, though in reality, he just wanted to take revenge for his father’s death.
Isac’s death was an eye-opener for Curupira, and he finally realized that he had to take his original form and stop the evil spirit from ruining everything. The Curupira chased Eric into the cedar woods, and even Ines and Camila came to the scene. Ines used her powers to make Eric realize that he had been possessed by an evil spirit so that he could internally put up a resistance. Eric, for a moment, regained his consciousness and saw Camila, Ines, and Curupira standing in front of him. Eric knew that as long as he was alive, the evil spirit would keep making him murder supernatural beings, so he stabbed himself, and the evil spirit was compelled to leave his body. It felt like Eric had died, but his soul had reached that area of transition between the earth and heaven and returned from there. In that zone of transition, Eric saw his wife, Gabriela, who told him that he was now one of the supernatural entities and that his purpose on earth was not finished yet. The Curupira took Eric in his arms, and together with Camila and Ines, they went deeper inside the cedar forest. In the second season of the series, “Invisible City,” we would get to know in which direction Eric’s life takes him and what destiny has planned for him.
