The Widow (Prime Video)

 Hello Folks, today, I'm sharing a critical analysis of "The Widow" aired on British ITV and Prime Video. 

                                                                                             *Spoilers Ahead*

The series follows the life of Georgia Wells (Kate Beckinsale) whose husband Will (Matthew Le Nevez) supposedly died in a plane crash on a trip to the Congo in Africa, in which no one survived. But, as the first episode progressed we see that she comes across a television news clip of Congo where she recognizes the orange baseball cap which Will was fond of wearing wherever he went. The footage didn't show his face, his back was shown on the camera. But, she had faith and her hunch made her take a journey to locate the man she loved who was presumed dead three years ago. She consulted with Martin Benson(Charles Dance) in Welsh who was ex-military and her father's friend, who promised to take care of her after his death. She was met with disappointment and pity for her obsession to find her dead husband. But, Georgia wasn't ready to back down yet, she took a flight to the Democratic Republic of the Congo which was still in unrest. She met Emmanuel(Jacky Ido ), a relative of another victim of the crash in Congo. They tracked down the man who was standing next to Will in the footage with a gun, the mysterious Pieter Bello(Bart Fouche). 

Meanwhile, there was an unknown survivor of the crash: Ariel(Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), who lost his eyesight because of the crash but had a terrifying story to explain why he didn't come forward to state what happened during the flight. He was in a medical research hospital which presented him a hope of a trial to get his eyesight back. There he met Louise Brealey(Beatrix) who was also there for the trial. They got romantically involved and through Beatrix's interrogation, we get to know that the flight didn't crash due to a technical issue but there was a bomb which was carried by Emmanuel's pregnant wife, she did it for money but was unaware it was a bomb in a form of a laptop. 

The story gets interesting now, Georgia was taken in by Will's former colleague Judith Gray(Alex Kingston) as a house guest in Congo. She seemed to be extremely helpful. A rented car gets delivered to Judith's apartment for Georgia and there was a note which said: "Go Home". But, Georgia ignored it and got even more confident that Will survived the crash. 

Meanwhile, we are shown that Will has bruises on his face as if he was beaten. The scene ends as we see he was kept in a wooden box. 

Georgia was able to track down Bello's Ex-wife who didn't want to cooperate with her. Her heart broke at that but, she had another plan in mind which involved Bello's daughter. When she was thinking to put the plan into action, the rented car blasted with Emmanuel in it. Georgia was dumbfounded and couldn't believe what just happened. And then, it became even more important for her to figure out the truth. She dug out the information by using Bello's daughter and forced his ex-wife to spill his location. Finally, the location was out: Kisima. 

Judith arranged a lift for Georgia with a group of medical aid workers[Tom Jansen (Howard Charles), Louise Chartrain (Mathilde Warnier), and Fabrice (Richard Lukunku)], but the volatility of the region threatened to derail their journey. They were robbed and the thugs tried to assault Georgia, where she killed one of them and the other ran for his life. It gets revealed that she was an Army Captian. 

They settled down in the village for Medical aid where she discovered Louise was secretly working with the militia(Bello's group) as a cotton smuggler to pay for her mother's medication. After the discovery, she threatened her and forced her to make a way for her to speak with Bello. Not much of speaking though, Georgia ends up killing Bello after she found out Bello was in contact with Judith. 

And at this point in the plot entered Adidja(Shalom Nyandiko) as a major component of the story. She was abducted from her village and was made to join the militia as a child soldier. She was given a gun and was trained well. She acted much like a child until Bello forced her to kill for him in return for his silence for witnessing her kindness: to let another child soldier escape. She showed strength and was rescued by Georgia as she was fleeing from Bello's death scene. A flashback of her own daughter was shown, Violet who died when she was 3 months old and Georgia tried to commit suicide because of it.

Elsewhere, Ariel was confronted by Martin at his hotel about the crash. He, out of guilt spilled out everything he knew including General Azikiwe's(Babs Olusanmokun) involvement in it. He explained that before the crash he overheard Emmanuel's wife talking to the General. But, Ariel couldn't describe him well or guess the man's name but was confident he would be able to recognize his voice. He urged Martin to let him repent for his silence and join the mission of Justice. 

Martin and Ariel meet Georgia and Adidja at Judith's place; Judith who was shown to have been attacked and murdered by one of the General's agents. Ariel recognized the General's voice but in the process, he died. Martin and Georgia were left to hunt the agent that killed Ariel. The agent was killed by the General for being a double agent(Bello and him). No proof was left but before the agent died he disclosed Will's location to Georgia and Martin. It was a house in Rwanda. 

Georgia went there and found Will. It was time to put all the pieces together. Judith used her charity front to smuggle cotton for Bello, Will got to know about it. He offered Bello a bigger cut which he accepted. Bello was General's agent and the entire operation of smuggling cotton was his. In the plane, there was a politician who would have made it difficult to smuggle cotton so, in order to get rid of him, General used Emmanuel's wife to plant a bomb so that he could be killed, which was otherwise impossible because of the tight security. Bello knew about the General's plan so he asked him not to board the plane but when the flight crashed, his name was under the deceased and he let it be that way as the General didn't like loose ends. 

After listening to the truth, Georgia was left to make her own conclusions. She still had questions, she wanted to know why he didn't call. Their discussion was going on when Will's new wife walked in with a baby. That became the breaking point for her and she left. 

She went back to Martin and realized Adidja was nowhere to be found. At the same moment, she got a call from Judith, who was supposed to be dead. Judith wanted Will's location in return for Adidja's. Georgia provided it and went to get her back. It was an orphanage that Adidja readily accepted as her home and knew she would have to part with Georgia at some point in time; an emotional moment was shared between the two. 

After this Georgia along with Martin, went to Emmanuel's lover(new wife before death) and gathered everyone associated with the crash. She decided to protest in front of the General's home. She was still unsuccessful at getting the General to confess. She sent a video recording of the protest to Will urging him to do the right thing which he did, in the end, and got Justice for the victims of the crash. Adidja and Georgia reunited in Welsh and this time it seemed to be forever.

This was about the gist of the series.

Majored in English, I've read far more about Africa and its symbolism than common folks. The writers Chinua Achebe, Toni Morrison, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tried to portray Africa from the eyes of the natives in their novels. Likewise, this 8 episodes series tried to showcase the corrupt officials who considered the lives of individuals as their property and used it as collateral damage for their own selfish agendas. The child labor at gunpoint, abduction, violence in the villages, and the terror of thugs among the people living near farmlands was too much to watch. It was astonishing how the series portrayed Africa, it still seemed like the myths which Chinua Achebe tried desperately to fight against still hold meaning in the 21st Century. It is still a third-world country known for its violence and hardcore tolerance for injustice. 

I believe the world is changing and with that, thoughts should too. Rather than explaining how Africa was or is, one should be more concerned about how it should be and build a path towards making it a better place to live. Series like these dive deep into the negatives and one is left with pity instead of inspiration. Though Georgia worked towards getting justice still her roadblocks were so terrifying that in reality, one would think twice before getting into situations like hers. 

In all, I would rate the series: 3.5*

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Sanna