'ZeroZeroZero': Andrea Riseborough as slick businesswoman Emma is a force to reckon with on the cocaine drama
Spoiler alert for Amazon Prime Video's 'ZeroZeroZero'
Emma Lynwood (Andrea Riseborough) begins her arc on 'ZeroZeroZero' under the prosperous wings of her father Edward Lynwood (Gabriel Byrne). The family has a shipping business that is basically a big front to broker cocaine.
Actually, allow us to rephrase that. Emma has only now come to realize that if the family doesn't broker cocaine, their business cannot survive.
And so, even when the requirement comes from a powerful cartel of Italian criminals led by Don Minu (Adriano Chiaramida), Emma tries convincing her father that there might be a way out from this — "We're not drug dealers," she says.
However, the deal with the Mexicans turns sour. The group is unexpectedly attacked by the army — sabotaged in an inside job by Sergeant Manuel (Harold Torres). It is here where Edward is shot in the chest.
And even though he is wearing a bulletproof vest, the shock of the bullet induces a heart attack; and one private jet trip later to their home in New Orleans, Edward dies in Emma's arms.
Despite strict instructions from her now-deceased father, Emma sends her brother Chris Lynwood (Dane DeHaan) on the ship with the cargo. The siblings share a very close and loving relationship, and all Emma had were Chris' best interests at heart.
Suffering from Huntington's disease that he inherited from his mother, 30-year-old Chris is living under the looming threat of the life-threatening disease. Later in the series, it is also revealed that the disease had taken a turn for the worse with Chris suffering through spasms.
However, Emma's idea behind sending Chris with the cargo is for him to live a little — to not be living under constant fear and worry about oncoming death. For Chris, this is a big deal because so far, his father has provided him with a sheltered life from fear of losing him early on.
Things, however, don't go according to plan and one unfortunate incident after the other leads to the Lynwood siblings reuniting in the desert city of Dakar in a desperate attempt to get their cargo out of the port.
And that is taken care of by Emma, only with Chris' help. If you think about it, there is no way that Emma would have survived her first cocaine brokering had it not been for Chris. Their strong relationship has foundations in sharing a past of loss and pain. What binds them together is also their deep love and affection for each other.
Emma is a force to reckon with. Her business acumen is not essential to the growth of the family's shipping business but also their cocaine brokering. Andrea Riseborough portrays the high and lows of being a high profile businesswoman with precision and ease.
Special mention to Riseborough's powerful wardrobe in the series — panache, slick and competent. Emma possesses the admirable quality of keeping calm in extremely high stakes situations.
She is surrounded by violent, power-hungry, greedy men, dangerous at different rungs of the social strata throughout the series only to arise victoriously — never once blind with ambition for we know many a man losing their sanity to their aspirations.
And Emma's story has only just begun.
All episodes of 'ZeroZeroZero' are currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.