“Far From Home,” a Netflix Nigerian teen series, depicts social differences, a young artist’s struggle, and the consequences of the worst decisions he took in his life. “Far From Home” is a Nigerian drama centered on a young Nigerian boy, Ishaya Bello, a struggling artist who could go to any extent to accomplish his dream of studying at the London Art Institute. He is a brilliant artist but an underappreciated one, so selling his drawings to make ends meet is insufficient for him. Thus, to study at his dream institution and be a world-recognized artist, he involves himself and his family in a deadly horror game. Let’s see whether Ishaya can resolve this predicament in his life.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Far From Home’ Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Series?
Ishaya Bello was an aspiring artist, but various obstacles in his way prevented him from reaching his dream destination. His father was an artist who used to paint to make his living but, unlike Ishaya, always tried to be honest in his work. However, while selling one of his sketches, he lost his younger son Dauda in a motorbike accident. Since then, Ishaya’s mother has hated the idea of painting and Ishaya’s addiction to art. Like Ishaya, his sister Rahila had dreams of studying at a renowned academic institution named Wilmer Academy. Though she was a talented student who loved to read, she also had to pay a large sum of money for the entrance exam required to get a scholarship and admission to Wilmer Academy. Rahila dropped the plan to study there, but her brother had other ideas that were not very honest. At the same time, he was working as a waiter at a pub called Rush and also as a servant in the house of one of the faculty members of Wilmer Academy. Ishaya stole a lot of money from the owner of Rush, gangster Oga Rambo, from his open money storage. Meanwhile, while he was also working at the principal’s house as a cleaner, he overheard a conversation between the faculty and his son about a leaked answer sheet for the entrance exam at Wilmer Academy. His son was an honest person, and he didn’t want to cheat on exams, so he threw it in the dustbin, and Ishaya picked it up. As Rahila didn’t want to enroll at the school dishonestly, Ishaya tried to win the scholarship all by himself. He took the exam, won the scholarship, and got admitted to Wilmer Academy. But after deducting school fees, uniforms, and book fees, he had only 5000 nairas in his hand. Ishaya broke down and returned to his home, only to find that Oga Rambo had found out about the theft and had detained his entire family. Ishaya begged Rambo and his brother, named Government to give him some time, but they threatened him that until he returned the money, Rahila would be put to work in their strip club.
Meanwhile, Ishaya’s ex-girlfriend, Adufe, met Oga Rambo and became his girlfriend following her split with Ishaya. She soon became the apple of Oga Rambo’s eye. Soon after getting a place in his heart, Adufe tried to establish a position in his business. Ishaya suggested to Government that he would help him sell his drugs in exchange for his sister’s release. Government agreed and released Rahila, and in return, Ishaya ended up being a full-fledged drug dealer who was threatened with his death if he didn’t sell them properly. During his school time, he started finding golden opportunities to sell molly to rich kids. Meanwhile, he befriended his crush, Carmen Wilmer, the great-granddaughter of the founder of Wilmer Academy, but Carmen had a relationship with one of the students, Atlas. Ishaya started a molly trading business through an anonymous online account and started selling all his molly to all the rich kids at school. Finally, some mischievous students set fire to the lab while doing fun experiments with molly, as a result of which strict security was put in place at the institution. But, with the help of Carmen, who was a big addict herself, Ishaya resumed selling molly at the library. Eventually, Ishaya’s prowess of selling drugs in any horrible situation impressed Government. Meanwhile, Oga Rambo had also involved his girlfriend Adufe in the drug dealing business, which Government didn’t like, but Adufe lost his money, forcing her to look for other means of earning and paying Oga; otherwise, she knew that Oga wouldn’t spare her life. So, she urged Ishaya to help her kidnap Ishaya’s best friend and roommate, Frank, whose parents were the wealthiest family in the city. Ishaya repeated his disapproval, but Adufe threatened to tell Oga to kill his family if he did not help her. Eventually, Ishaya was compelled to assist her in Frank’s kidnapping, for which he could not forgive himself. But after getting ransom money from Frank’s family when Frank was released, Ishaya thought the danger was over, but he was completely wrong as Oga Rambo and Adufe were planning to kidnap other rich kids from the school. Since kidnapping made them more money than drug dealing did, they decided to make kidnapping their all-new business. They fixed the next target on Carmen Wilmer, who apparently had a crush on Ishaya and vice versa. So, Ishaya would never allow such a big injustice to happen to Carmen. The story of the series depicts how Ishaya surrendered himself to save his love, Carmen, from this danger.
What Happened To Carmen?
Carmen Wilmer was the great-granddaughter of the founder of Wilmer Academy. Her past life involved a tragic event: she and her boyfriend Atlas had a car accident a few years ago where Atlas ran over a girl while driving. The girl slipped into a coma, and Carmen had a major injury in her leg. She had always hidden the whole incident from her parents to save her boyfriend, saying that she was actually the one driving the car. Atlas and his mother were opportunists, and they blackmailed Carmen’s parents into paying Atlas’s school fees. In fact, Atlas even had a secret physical relationship with Carmen’s best friend, Nnenna, which Carmen didn’t know about. However, at a pool party, Ishaya got high on Molly and filmed Atlas and Nnenna being intimate with each other, which he kept a secret. But following the incident, Ishaya and Carmen started to get closer to each other, and Atlas found them kissing at the prom. Atlas, without even knowing any context, made the mistake of confessing everything about Nnenna to Carmen. Carmen felt betrayed and revealed the truth to everyone at their school’s Founder’s Day. She explained how she had a hidden accident while saving Atlas and then found out that Atlas was cheating on her. Her confession went viral, discrediting both Nnenna and Atlas. During this time, three students from Wilmer Academy were selected for the London Art Institute grant, including Atlas and Ishaya. However, Atlas envied Ishaya from the beginning and destroyed his painting, but Ishaya already had a backup plan, so he won the London Art Institute grant with another portrait that he had made before. At the end of semester, Carmen’s parents admitted her in a rehab for curing her drug addiction. Carmen couldn’t adhere to their decision at first, but she tried to cope with it. She still had feelings for Ishaya and wanted to contact him, but she couldn’t call him from the rehab facility due to restrictions.
‘Far From Home’ Ending Explained: How Did Ishaya Get Oga Rambo Arrested?
Carmen had been the next target of Adufe in her kidnapping master plan. Ishaya tried his best to stop this disaster from happening, but when he realized all his options were closed, he knew what he ought to do. Previously, on Founder’s Day at Wilmer Academy, he talked to his role model, Essien, about the London Art Institute, but, just like other rich people, Essien had also humiliated his quality simply because Ishaya lacked the money to afford travel or to study there. Ishaya no longer wanted to attend Wilmer Academy because he could see his dreams had been shattered and his chief intentions would not have been successful. So, he confessed all his guilt to save Carmen, Frank, and their other friends from danger. He confessed to the principal and informed the police so that Oga Rambo could be arrested. The police surrounded Oga’s pub and arrested Government, but Oga Rambo, Adufe, and one of their men managed to escape. As a result, Ishaya was terrified that while Oga was still out there, he could harm his family. So, to ease Ishaya’s stress, his friend Frank helped him protect his family’s security. Finally, Oga Rambo and his partner Adufe started residing in a separate house where the police couldn’t trace them. Adufe managed to get away with all Oga’s money and called Ishaya. Oga Rambo ambushed Ishaya and attempted to kill him when Adufe attacked him from behind and knocked him unconscious. Adufe grabbed all the money and became the mistress of Rush while Government was still rotting in jail, and Oga Rambo was kept inside the cage of a hyena.
What Happened To Ishaya’s Dream?
“Far From Home” is a narrative with no morals and is intended to provide cheap thrills. The story begins promisingly, but the ending is rushed, and the fifth episode appears to indicate that the creators intend to end the story anyway. A distressing ending, combined with a convoluted plotline that confuses the story’s major point of view, i.e., the achievement of Ishaya’s art, shows that only good production design can make the series a success on its own. At the end of the series, we see Ishaya presenting one of his masterpiece portraits, which had been framed at the hall of Wilmer Academy, after earning a grant from the London Art Institute. Essien applauded Ishaya’s artwork, taking pride that he had picked him as an artist. We, the audience, neither get a good look at Ishaya’s portrait nor understand how he became a prolific painter after his drug dealing and kidnapping history and after being expelled from the Wilmer Academy right after the first semester. The makers should have shed more light on this process, which we did not get in this series. Anyway, “Far From Home” season 1 ended like an incomplete nightmare, and I rate this series as nothing but a waste of time.
