Riptide™ is the descendent of every action drama that grabs the front of your shirt, and forces you to think about what justifies betrayal. Betrayal of a country, of a way of life, the trust between a father and a daughter — a family. It's beautiful people with frayed and broken hearts, throwing punches and blowing stuff up, watching it burn, and then going home heavy with sorrow, to make sense of a life that threatens to end up in the same pile of ash.
Riptide is also an immigrant's story. What will an outsider do to pledge fealty to their new home? To survive? To assimilate? To remember where they came from?
A self-contained procedural, and a prestige, long arc, action-packed drama. It's sexy, shippable couples. It's teenagers you root for instead of tune out. It's a family. It's a young mother who won't stop until she's free from a life she never understood, even if she isn't sure who she loves or what waits for her on the other side. It's a father who walked away from a life he thought he would never miss, but now finds himself remembering the smell of the wharf and the heat of the sun. It's corruption. It's grief. It's an ass-kicking.
...immigrated from Cuba in the 1960s and settled in a deeply Anglo, small town in tidal Maryland. Set in 1993, when the world was shifting from analog to digital. When the notions of privacy and being alone in the world were still possible. On the edge of ushering in a decade of great prosperity and increased government transparency, and the end of our fight against communism and our reliance on shady CIA operatives.
Riptide patriarch, Raul Valdes, is a black ops dinosaur. A relic of the CIA's rigorous anti-Castro programs in Cuba, and the architect of his daughter's own descent into secretive government work.
He and Jeffrey -- his original recruiter, and de facto confessor/confidant -- are the Agency. They develop assets and take down targets at the behest of the shadowy forces still lingering in the halls of the CIA and FBI. They may be mercenaries. They may be patriots. When Raul's daughter, Sunny, comes home, and his wife dies, his dreams of Cuba start to form cracks in what was once a perfect operation.
Sunny Valdes, Raul's daughter, has been on the run for nearly five years after a failed mission in Oregon. Tied up with eco-terrorists, and too close to asset Tom, her inexperience as an agent and the powerful draw of the people she was meant to take down, leave her exposed, and the Agency is unwilling to help her. Finally, after years dragging her family across the country, she is able to return home.
But there is a price to pay for her freedom, and it's a threat to her children, her young ward Phoenix, a child of the movement in Oregon, and her handsome, trusting husband, himself torn between his past values and his new family.
She knows nothing of her father's role in her own messy life, and is devastated by her brief reunion with her mother. In a marriage thrown together by passion and circumstance, with children to protect, and an increasingly complex relationship with Raul, Sunny's life on the run was easier than what she will reckon with after her homecoming.
From Tony Soprano to Walter White, men were loved for being bad, but the time is ripe for a woman to use her family, her pain, her fight for survival, as motivation to dance with the devil.
Carrie Mathison, Elizabeth Jennings, Sarah Manning (and her Orphan Black "sisters") -- even Alicia Florrick have waded into dark waters, where their decisions for country, for family, for their own personal gain, leave them compromised
Sunny Valdes will find her heart and her ethics at odds with doing the necessary thing time after time, and viewers will be torn by her love of Tom and her old flame Danny, as well as wanting her both to walk out on her controlling father, and stay by his side to continue his cheerless and dark legacy. There are no absolutes.
Structurally, each episode can stand alone, and will feature, in the JJ Abrams tradition, a big "bad" and a small "bad." The Big Bad will always be a part of the serialized arc. Whether it's the murky waters of the Agency, or the militant Flock -- eco-terrorists now tied to dangerous foreign governments -- or Castro's crackdown in the 1960s, each mission will connect back to this larger worldview of both the show, and the time. The Small Bad will focus on the character that has their back up against a wall every week -- while the Agency holds the line. It could be an old friend who isn't at all a friend, or a team of Brazilian enforcers with no mercy for pretty secret agents. It's always someone that needs to be taken care of by Sunny, and/or her fellow agents. This is where the action is rooted.
The emotional throughline of each episode is steeped in sorrow -- for Sunny's mother, for the life they all might have had, for a country that never was. It is reflected in their missions, their love, their futures. They cannot move without thinking of what might have been and how maybe this step, this day, will be different, will change their circumstances. And, of course, just when they think they are out, they are in deeper than before.
Flashbacks and a mysterious police interview will weave throughout multiple episodes, establishing the backstory of each character; and with the knowledge that Sunny gets brought into the interrogation room at some point, an underpinning of dread and thrum of anxiety.
Recent TV darling Jane the Virgin highlights the audience opportunity for a Latina-led hour-long show. And Riptide would cover more ground, with a Latina action hero in a prestige drama. While representing less than 2% of lead roles on television, Latinos' US population (17%+) and cultural influence continue to grow in America as the latest immigrant group to impact the fabric of this country.
Additionally, the thawing of political relations between Cuba and the US creates an opportunity to examine the complex journey and history of the two countries and their influence on one unique, struggling, striving family. Riptide continues to explore diversity on television, in the tradition of Shonda Rhimes, Jill Solloway and Jenji Kohan.
But more than just checking a box, or pulling a gun, Riptide is a chance to look at America itself. A chance to take one father, one daughter, one set of dreams, at a time when the old ways were being replaced by the shiny new version, and dissect that experience.
To intersect Raul's broken heart, with the burgeoning dreams of his grandchildren. How they change him. How his own dirty deeds have made him less a fighter for democracy, and more a man going through the motions, headed for his own destruction, and maybe his family's as well. How his son-in-law's own descent into the Agency life, reflects those same wants and losses. And what Sunny will do to free them all from the quagmire, and give them the life Raul dreamed of when he crossed the Strait of Florida in the dead of the night.
What follows is a brief description of the setting, a comprehensive description of the characters, and the first 12 episodes, with emphasis on the PILOT, and several others where major events open up the story.
A small, tidal town, nestled on the banks of tributaries from the Chesapeake Bay, with a history of building Baltimore Clippers and harvesting oysters.
St. Michael's, like most towns of its type, is for tourists, with its 2,000 residents living on low wages or commuting long distances to the big cities. The bay culture runs deep -- tossing crab pots, boating, sailing -- everyone knows their way around the water.
The Valdes family settled in St. Michael's when the local priest helped Anna and the kids escape Cuba. Raul never much cared for being around people once he left Havana, so they stayed put after he joined them, never considering a move to Miami or other destinations popular for Cubans. It was easier for him to do his work. The boats go in and out quietly. DC is close. They built a simple Cape Cod on a small piece of land with a nice view of the water. They even adjusted to the cold winters, and bracing winds.
It is a pretty, somewhat isolated town, despite its popularity with day trippers. The streets are clean, the homes well-kept and the beautiful views make it the kind of place that you might hold onto if you've been gone a long time. If you're missing home, the sound of the boats bumping the barnacled harbor, of the waves slapping the hulls, you'd hear that when you close your eyes at night, like you would remember the The Malecon in Cuba, like you would remember your childhood launching off the dock before everything got too dark.
Cuban American, 30-35, beautiful in that way that makes people stare, which has lead to a variety of strange disguises in her current predicament. Raised in a town where the Hispanic population was non-existent, she's long enjoyed the role of outsider.
She's determined to keep her family safe, but her own complicated history with the government's dark arts threatens to pull them all under. Husband Tom also lives in the shadows, but he's devoted, and their three kids are pawns in everyone's game. Her mother's illness, and Sunny's yen for normalcy has brought her back home, where she must reckon with her father's checkered past, resume her 'good daughter' responsibilities, and settle her family once and for all. This trip homeward bound is where we begin our story.
Dirty blond, 30, sturdy, tall, lumberjack type from the woods of Oregon. Handsome, but in every way his wife's physical opposite. Born to a blue collar family whose legacy was bad jobs at the local paper mill. The environmental destruction he witnessed all his life, and his father's painful death, lead him to Oregon University and straight to the Green Freedom Front (GFF), and Sunny, who would change everything. Unrepentant (mostly) about his eco-warrior days, he keeps close counsel, and while in the grey about his wife's secrets, his connections to the movement aren't the distant memory he would have his family believe. The recent arrests of several GFF generals has taken the heat off of Tom and Sunny, and he finds himself settling down for the first time in his adult life, but choices will have to be made as Tom discovers who his wife really is, and what their run has actually been about.
Pretty, awkward, artistic, 15. A happy loner, despite her strange circumstances. Phoenix has been with Tom and Sunny since her mother Marissa was killed in the blast at the SUV plant. Born in 1979 at an off-the-books home for unwed mothers, her birth was unregistered, her father a stranger. Self-taught, tucked away for most of her childhood, and known by few people, Phoenix isn't on the map. She doesn't exist for authorities, she's an orphan, and through no fault of her own, she's the most rogue member of her underground clan. Her entry into normalcy with Sunny's family is revelatory, until her world is turned upside down by the return of her presumed dead birth mother. Deeply loved and trusted by her 'adopted' family, her mother's return will push her to know more about who they really are.
A cafe con leche mix of their parents, the twins, 5, were born while Tom and Sunny were on the run and certainly weren't planned. Devoted to one another in that twin way, and that 'never had a home' way, they are thrilled to suddenly have grandparents, a bed and a school. Their identities and life have all been facilitated through back channels and dodgy dealings, but they are none the wiser. The least tainted of the bunch, they will be an anchor when Tom and Sunny want to throw in the towel.
Valdes matriarch. Early 60s. Anna facilitated her family's escape from Cuba through her relationship with Father Blackwell, and they settled in his parish in St. Michael's. She has had a content, but quiet life, always missing home, and never feeling very American. Devoutly Catholic, but with a blind eye towards her husband's erratic hours and secrecy -- perhaps because of her own well-guarded past involving Father Blackwell and the time she lived in St. Michael's without Raul. She was heartbroken when Sunny never came home, but even on her deathbed, she maintains her worldview with clarity, kindness, and devotion to her family. Her passing will devastate the Valdes clan, particularly Sunny, who is wracked with grief and regret.
The puppetmaster. Handsome, but worn in and worn out, 60, but strong as an ox. Usually spotted puttering in his garden, or avoiding conversation on the front porch, when he isn't working at the airport as head baggage handler. He loves 70s music and his old Ford pickup. Doesn't really work at the airport. Chief swinging dick at the Agency, which he and Jeffrey built after his escape/extraction from Cuba. Big fan of intimidation through garden shears. Knows everything -- except how to grieve his wife's death or talk to his son. Sunny admires him because she thinks he's a hardworking immigrant who did everything for his family, even if their relationship isn't so warm and friendly. She'll soon be disabused of this notion, which won't be pretty, but when you play at secrets and lies, shit happens.
Sunny's twin brother, closeted. Hank is an Army vet, who served in Desert Storm. He's now the fire captain in St. Michael's, and the town's most eligible bachelor, who spends his free weekends in Baltimore or DC cruising gay bars. No one knows his secret, least of all his conservative parents. Sunny's foil and best friend growing up. A troublemaker in highschool, but the town loved him anyway because he could win baseball games. Athletic, an adept boatman, handsome, and socially at ease. He is the most assimilated of the Valdes clan, and spends little time with his taciturn father. Sunny's return brings them all together again, leaving Hank on the lying end of the truth about his life.
Anna's father. Pushing 80, volatile, face like an Eastern Island moia, and a bit off his rocker, but not so much that he doesn't drop breadcrumbs for Sunny as she sorts out the family history. Cuba's version of Uncle Junior. Arrived on the Valdes doorstep via the Mariel boatlift from Cuba, where he was alternately connected and jailed. Beloved by Sunny and her brother, but distrusted by Raul, who sees his father-in-law's declining mental state and history of lashing out as a danger to the 'business.'
The Green Freedom Front (GFF) began as an environmental club at Oregon University, but eventually developed into the militant and rogue eco-terror organization The Flock. Sunny's first job for the Agency, and a home for Tom when he started college and wanted to fight the evil paper mill overlords, GFF is the beginning of it all. The Flock is not only responsible for the murder of several people at the logging company, and death of one of their own, they are also linked to even more radical eco groups in South America, and, unbeknownst to their original hippie warrior base, other terror fronts around the world who join them in their anti-government crusade. While most of the group has left the country or gone underground, they remain connected through a web of other terror cells and continue to peddle their skills worldwide.
Cropped hair, late 30s, white, overtly sexy, with the squirrely affect of someone who doesn't tell the truth. Marissa was presumed dead in the blast at the logging plant, which sent GFF, including Tom and Sunny, into the wind, and The Flock underground. She's also Phoenix's mother, and Tom's ex-lover. Her arrival is a turning point, jeopardizing the quiet 'normal' that Tom and Sunny have begun to establish for their kids, and exposing Phoenix to the cloudy morality of her adopted family. Marissa's attempted takedown of the Valdes-Zane's will cause a lasting ripple, and devastate Phoenix. It will also test Tom's resolve as the 'good guy' and bring out Raul's old Agency habits.
Black, 30-35, almost a stud, but mostly a government wonk. Miller was a low-level GFF operative. Literally answered the phones and made copies at the club in college, but knew all the players and was close with Tom and Sunny. Particularly Sunny, who, despite other failures in Oregon, turned him into a valuable mole for the Agency. A suit in DC now, positioned with a powerful congressman, he did what he could to help them on the road, and they still rely on him for intel about other members of GFF. One of the few who didn't have to run, he has been a good friend and trusted confidante. He will find himself in a newly up-front position -- and not an entirely safe one -- now that Sunny and Tom are 'settled.'
A hulking, greying, pater familias of GFF, sixtysomething. He worked as a foreman at the papermill with Tom, and stayed underground while Tom was an eager GFF recruit. An early adopter of the eco-terror movement in the Pacific Northwest and a true believer, his computer savvy and recruitment skills, make him indispensable, even when he goes toe to toe with the new guard. An architect of GFF's transformation into The Flock, and international 'expansion,' he also serves as the group 'conscience,' reminding any wavering souls what they are fighting for.
Created as a black ops, unholy union of the FBI and CIA in the 60s, with Jeffrey and Raul as the yin and yang of recruitment, asset cultivation, missions and general badassery. They provide valuable intel and threat management assistance on communism, homegrown terrorism, or whatever 'ism' the government wants handled quietly. Their team is small, but their reach is wide. Sunny's mission going sideways in Oregon was a dark mark on their otherwise impeccable record, and she was left treading water like a common criminal until it was safe -- and beneficial -- to bring her in. Connections from local police to high level government give them tremendous leeway, but nothing helps them manage the emotional blowback of Sunny's homecoming, or Raul's soft spot for Cuba.
A legend. A man who knows exactly who he is and how to do his job. Dark suits, silk ties, Mercedes, white, around 60, single. There's no pretending to be a man of the people for Jeffrey. There is softness for his female agents, and some curious boundary issues, but no weakness. He is a man who keeps his own governance entirely. He recruited Sunny, and has protected her -- and damaged her -- in ways yet to be revealed. He brings her home, and promises it will soon be over, but there is a heavy tax. His connection to Raul is decades old, and will prove an important linchpin in our story. Always assume Jeffrey has a silencer in the inside pocket of his Zegna suits.
If Olivia Pope had a younger, sportier sister, she'd be Peyton. Black, 27, on it. Great sneaker collection, and impeccable at field work. The handler Tom didn't know he had. She will be pivotal as he gets pulled deeper and deeper into Agency life. She knows all his secrets, particularly his dealings with The Flock and Marissa, and while she doesn't want to use that for leverage, she'll do what she must for missions. Another one of Jeffrey's proteges and very loyal to him.
Big and fat, but a smooth dresser and neat freak, 40-45, with a savant's penchant for computer hackery. A necessary ally during missions, and a lifeline before smart phones and high speed internet. An Agency stalwart, comic relief, and the guy behind the desk that explains the stuff we don't understand.
After the fall of Cuba, Father John brought Anna and the kids to St. Michaels, where his family has lived for a hundred years. Retired now, he remains close with Anna, and likes to hold court at the diner where he boasts about his nephew the priest. Seems to know Jeffrey.
John's nephew, and Sunny's first love, 30-35. Slight, reserved, dark hair and eyes, always a day late on a shave. Danny's a priest because Sunny left and never came back, but he's still in love with her. Her return surprises him, and throws his faith into a tailspin. Distrustful and jealous of Tom, and angry at his uncle for his role, whatever it was, in all the Valdes secrecy. He will quickly find himself pulled into Sunny's world, risking his life -- body and soul.
Another fish out of water, she's a little bit Italian, but mostly New Jersey. A gum snapper, 40-50, Sunny's former babysitter, and facilitator of illicit cigarettes and sneaking out when Sunny was in high school. Married to Danny's older brother. A confidant for Sunny, a big sister, the source of Sunny's honed street-smarts, and a home away from home where no one expects anything from her.
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Summary: The Zane family, on the run for five years, find themselves welcomed back into the quiet and predictable hometown of our protagonist, Sunny. But what was a reach for normal family life, is anything but. Their peaceful new world is a cover for the overwhelming forces that nearly destroyed them, and still could. Sunny and husband Tom will be asked to fight new battles in an unfamiliar terrain within a far more sinister set of rules, and much higher stakes.
Summary: Sunny's husband, Tom, is pulled deeper into the mysterious Agency which is the true source of Sunny's secret-agent past, her family's risky life on the run, and hopeful return to normal. Sunny is caught trying to keep Tom from the tempting agent's life while dealing with her mother's death and funeral.
Summary: Sunny and Tom's past and present collide when Marissa arrives to collect Phoenix. Presumed dead in the eco-terror fuck-up that sent Sunny and Tom on the run, and less than forthcoming about how she survived, Marissa's intentions are quickly discovered and they aren't about a mother and child reunion.
Sunny's brother Hank is threatened by a dangerous Marissa, confirming Sunny's fears about her sudden reappearance. Tom gets pulled deeper into the Agency, and fails his first assignment, leaving Sunny's father, Raul, to clean up the mess the way he does best.
Summary: Phoenix copes with losing Marissa a second time, while Sunny tries to comfort her and understand what happened. A simple Agency assignment reveals a potential terror plot in Brazil, while Sunny's renewed closeness with old flame Danny—now a priest at the local church—increases tension between her and Tom.
Summary: Sunny's pursuit of old contacts in the eco-terror group, The Flock, sends her to Brazil where she and Agency collaborator Peyton foil the destruction of a dam. Clues back at home shed light on Raul's secret life. Sunny is attacked in her home and kills her attacker in self-defense, with some unexpected help.
Summary: Raul's road from mechanic in Havana to CIA asset to covert operations engineer, is explored, and he finally tells Sunny who he really is. She realizes Raul's decades of secretive work have directly led to the quicksand of her family's frantic and dangerous life.
Summary: Sunny's recruitment as an idealistic college student contrasts sharply with her present-day attempts at normalcy in the wake of her attempted murder and Raul's revelations. The Agency continues to creep in and manage the lives and actions of the people she loves.
Summary: While Sunny continues to refuse all missions, Tom redeems his reputation as a new operative in the Agency with a fact-finding trip back to his roots in the Pacific Northwest. An encounter with an old acquaintance draws blood, bonding Tom with mission partner Peyton, with whom he shares an ease not felt with Sunny in a long time.
Summary: Sunny decides that to end this game, she needs to play it and win. Agreeing to help the Agency round up the violent leadership of The Flock once and for all, Sunny is pulled into a dangerous mission to Venezuela with Tom, which could be their last, while Raul goes off book with secret plans of his own.
Summary: In the aftermath of Venezuela, Sunny and Tom finally breathe a sigh of relief. Letting his guard down, Tom is influenced by an opponent who used to be an ally. Tom's increasing hesitation makes him sloppy and an Agency liability, leaving Sunny to try and hold together the shards of her family's tenuous life.
Summary: Now that she's met her obligations to the Agency, Sunny considers her future. Coming to terms with her old, lingering feelings for Danny is cut short when they are both nearly killed. Raul's protection saves them but puts him in the hospital, where his deepest fears surface from years of black ops work. He tearfully, forcefully instructs Sunny to "RUN!" But before she can even pack a bag, Phoenix and Tom are taken, and her father's words become life or death.