The Wayfarer (television series)

The Wayfarer is an ongoing American crime drama and a Netflix original series. It began airing in July 2021, and remains ongoing in its fourth season.

Set primarily in the early 2020s in Los Santos, the series focuses on the life of Vincent Torelli, a divorc ed ex-Wall Street business analyst and alcoholic, who becomes entangled in the criminal underworld of southern San Andreas. Initially working as a bank robber and enforcer for the anarchist-terrorist Underground Syndicate, Vincent later becomes involved with the Martorano crime family, before meeting Chloe Hill, a mentally-ill, middle-aged woman with supposed ESP powers, who later becomes the deuteragonist of the series.

While primarily focusing on Vincent Torelli, the series also focuses on the time period and zeitgeist of the early 2020s in its cinematography, including numerous references to popular brands, music, events and public figures of the time. Throughout much of the series, the presidency of Joe Biden and the Russian invasion of Ukraine play a major background role in influencing the world of The Wayfarer, with the economic inflation of the early Biden era being a major influence in Vincent's descent into organized crime.

The series also makes heavy use of licensed music, particularly the works of Pink Floyd, with every season being aligned to follow the theme and vibe of Pink Floyd's albums, beginning with their 1971 *"Meddle"* album. The series also uses external poetry as inspiration and allegories for the main characters, especially the works of T.S. Eliot and Khalil Gibran.

## Premise

The Wayfarer documents the criminal descent and moral deterioration of Vincent Torelli, and his transformation from a Wall Street business analyst to a hardened, sociopathic criminal, as well as the ironic portrayal of the indifference of the two. The series also focuses on the societal effects that lead to crime, with the name of the series itself, "The Wayfarer", coming as an excerpt from Khalil Gibran's poem on crime and punishment, from The Prophet:

> *"You are the way and the wayfarers. And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone. Aye, and he falls for those ahead of him, who, though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone."*
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The series portrays Vincent's cathartic descent into sociopathy as being a change in his character, though later seasons reveal the character's actions were motivated by selfishness all along. The series portrays this idea through the inclusion of the Torelli family, a bloodline of sociopathic criminals and gangsters, with the notion that Vincent was born with this moral dilemma, and that the psychological aspects that led to his descent into crime were possibly genetic.

Throughout the series, Vincent constantly struggles with justifying his own actions, doing so by blaming exterior forces (*society, poverty, gang pressure, etc.*) or by trying to redeem himself in the form of committing morally good acts, such as trying to maintain a relationship with fellow Underground associate Grace Adams, which ended in sorrow after it was revealed she was little more than a pawn for Vincent's own selfish pursuits.

Vincent also displayed his fleeting dynamic of 'self-redemption' through his relationship to Chloe Hill in the third and fourth seasons, a mentally-ill and schizophrenic woman who claims to possess powers of reincarnation. While actively living the life of a mobster for the Martorano crime family, Vincent listens and gives solace to Chloe in order to gain her trust and 'redeem' himself, as well as performing daunting tasks for her (retrieving her daughter Layla from foster care), all the while ironically feeding into her mental delusions and, as revealed later, endangering her with his lifestyle.

As revealed during the progression of the series, Vincent himself has never changed, and has always been a self-centered sociopath. His refusal to adhere to his ex-wife's wishes and give up his job at Wall Street (with his later termination and alcoholism acting as the basis for his involvement in crime) was due to his own pride and ego for giving up the lavish, aristocratic lifestyle given to him by his father.

The series' overarching message is how despite his efforts, the universe always renders Vincent's immoral actions nil, his greed and overall destruction of his morality being worthless compared to the salvation of his soul and true happiness, only leading him further into depression and mental decay, as well as destroying his relationships and opportunities for legal success.

## Synopsis

### Season 1

Vincent Torelli, the son of a mob boss, and a divorced ex-Wall Street business analyst and recovering alcoholic, arrives in the San Andreas city of Los Santos to attend a rehab clinic.

The season begins with Vincent alone on the streets of Los Santos. Homeless and with minimal income coming from his back-breaking job as a garbage man in the city's industrial district, Vincent eventually becomes involved with David The Angel, a marijuana trafficker from rural Blaine County. Vincent begins working with David growing weed, as well as stealing cars from the Bayview Auto Center in Paleto Bay, before encountering a man named Christoph Wellerman, who he gives a ride to the city.

Determined to find and work for Wellerman, Vincent spends the next several weeks attempting to track him down. Eventually, he finds him on the Del Perro Pier during a cancer awareness event, during which Vincent meets Melody Frey, the leader of an anarchist-terrorist bank robbing group called The Underground. He is recruited by Melody, and is soon tasked with being a scout on a bank heist.

Vincent meets up with David once more for a job in Paleto Bay. It turns out to be a setup, and Vincent is shot below his right eye, with lead shrapnel going into his brain. This causes him to go partially blind, and doctors give him a diagnosis of a high risk of cancer due to lead poisoning.

Vincent's relationship with The Underground soon turns serious, as he's involved with the murder of a man who attempted to steal his car, on Halloween. After this, his mental health deteriorates in his lonely position within the gang, and he decides to ally himself with a Mexican street gang called the Eastside Vagos, going against Melody. While in the Vagos, Vincent angers local small-time Italian crime boss Marcus Falcone, who dispatches button-men after Vincent. He's tortured, with his left finger cut off and fed to him - later replaced by prosthetic surgery.

Eventually, after a war with The Underground, Vincent decides to temporarily flee the state during the week of Christmas, before returning several days later and vowing to make amends with Melody by going after the Eastside Vagos. He's successful, and they capture and torture the leader, with Vincent being reinstated within Melody's gang.

Several weeks later, Vincent meets Grace Adams, a fellow Underground member. The two instantly fall in love and move in with each other in Del Perro. During this time, Vincent moves up in rank within The Underground, gaining more respect from Melody. However, several weeks later, Vincent, Grace and several other members of the gang are involved in the kidnapping and firing squad execution of a prison security guard who attempted to rape Melody, culminating in Melody being arrested and questioned by the police.

After Melody is released, the FBI begins to look into Vincent and Grace's involvement in the homicide. The two decide to leave the Underground Syndicate for the sake of keeping the cops off the rest of the gang. Vincent's father, James Jr., authorizes resources for Vincent to establish his own drug and arms trafficking crew in Los Santos. It succeeds, and Vincent and Grace become rich enough to move into the luxurious Eclipse Towers apartment building together, the couple later becoming engaged.

After the heat from law enforcement cooled down, Vincent merged much of his own crew back into the Underground Syndicate, with Vincent earning a kind of "lieutenant" status within the organization. However, the relationship between Vincent and Grace began to decline after his loss of power, the pair eventually separating a few months later.

The season ends with Vincent alone in the Richman hotel, thinking over the events prior, and falling back into alcoholism and depression.

### Season 2

The season opens as Vincent Torelli sits alone in a room in the Richman hotel. He exits the room and encounters Marianne Tipple jogging past the building. The two stop and share a brief friendly conversation, the woman giving Vincent a carton of cigarettes.

Essentially retired from the Underground Syndicate, Vincent spends the early summer of 2022 cruising the streets of Los Santos. He encounters Luigi, a crime journalist. Vincent tells his family's story to Luigi, who in turn tips Vincent off to the existence of the Italian-American mafia in Los Santos.

Afterwards, at a record store, Vincent encounters Zya Reeh, an autistic 16-year old Korean girl. Vincent attempts to take her under his wing as a kind of daughter figure, to the negative judgement from other people who saw them together; they claimed Vincent was a predator. Eventually, Zya is shot and disappears, where she'd remain missing for the rest of the season.

Zya's disappearance sends Vincent into a deeper state of depression. He attempts to compensate by falling deeper into alcoholism, as well as trying, and failing, to hook up with several women and prostitutes he met at late-night bars and nightclubs. All the while, Vincent attempts to reconcile with Grace and the Underground, who by now have all but disowned him. He's left without any source of illegal income.

A few weeks later, Vincent walks into Damiani's Diamonds, a mob-owned diamond store in Morningwood. While here, he meets Benny Ruggieri, a soon-to-be made man in the Martorano crime family. He invites Vincent and fellow prospective associate Aldo Moretti to a dinner at Campese's Trattoria in Del Perro, with Vincent being inducted to work for a man named Sammy Villione and his car theft racket. Later that day, at Goldie's Bar in Mission Row, Vincent meets Samuel Marotta, another long-time associate.

The following day, Vincent, Benny and Sammy plot to start a cathouse Downtown, using Vincent's connection to an escort named Layla Bojchenko, a refugee from the Ukrainian invasion. Around this time as well, Vincent and John are involved in the murder of a teenager in the diamond store, who tried to mock-rob the place. Ross Malaspina, an associate from Vespucci, helped the pair bury the kid on a hill near the La Fuente Blanca ranch.

A few days later, Vincent attends the funeral of Lou Cascata, where he meets most of the other members of the syndicate. While there, a verbal argument breaks out between members of the Tarano and Downtown crews, signifying a brewing internal war. It eventually culminates in a bloody shootout several days later, resulting in the death of Benny and Vincent being out of work. He eventually starts working primarily for Sammy on the cathouse project, until eventually, a man named John Aparo appears to take Benny's place as one of the top enforcers in Mission Row.

It is around this time that the stress from being in the mafia led to Vincent suffering a major seizure due to the lead in his brain, in the parking lot of the Oasis Bar near the airport. He'd hallucinate a vision of Grace and Melody.

A few days later, Vincent encounters Chloe Hill at the Pharaoh Beauty Shop in Del Perro. He'd buy her makeup and they'd talk, before she'd disappear. He'd eventually forget about her.

It is during this time that Vincent is involved with several on and off relationships with women, including Melora Studheart, a nymphomaniac from Texas, as well as Alejandra Garza, a floozy from Rancho who already had a boyfriend.

Things go good as more progress is made on the cathouse project. Vincent eventually hatches a scheme with Aparo to scam insurance money through phantom billing from the local mob-controlled construction union. Vincent would use a contact from Wall Street to help plan the scheme, which he would have to visit in Liberty City. The night before he flew out, Vincent receives a phone call from Chloe Hill, who asks to hang out with him. The two share drinks with Rocco and Ronald DiFiore at Goldie's Bar.

Vincent and Chloe later return to her apartment, with the two sharing a meaningful conversation regarding Chloe's loneliness and want for friendship. Vincent then leaves due to having to catch his flight to Liberty City, vowing to spend more time with Chloe when he returned.

Vincent spends several days in Liberty City, returning to John Aparo and starting the process on the phantom billing scheme, alongside the cathouse project in the background. In the meantime, Vincent and Chloe bonded heavily, the pair's relationship soon becoming romantic. Chloe suffered a major panic attack one night, fully confirming to Vincent the deteriorated state of Chloe's mental wellbeing.

Around this time, Vincent, Rocco DiFiore and Brandon Conradina are involved in the murder of Martorano associate Raymond Cirillo, who was killed for being gay - Vincent delivered the finishing blow, and they buried him up north.

As Vincent's career in the Martorano crime family improves, and Chloe finds stable legal employment, he eventually proposes to her in a park in the Vinewood Hills, having stolen the engagement ring from Damiani's Diamond Store. The happiness of their engagement was shattered several days later, however, when Vincent encounters Chloe having sex with Christopher Birchwood, a British tourist. Confronting Birchwood, he later beats Vincent unconscious, culminating in another seizure and hallucination episode. The apartment building's owner, Adam Kaminski, kicks Vincent and Chloe out of the apartment, and the two move in together in the Richman Hotel.

A few days later, the couple make an attempt to reconcile their trust issues. They go to the Del Perro Pier together, dropping items into the ocean that held bad omens; Vincent's picture of members of The Underground, and Chloe's crowbar. The two then drove up north to Paleto Bay, where they rented a room in the Bayview Motel. They had sex, with Vincent impregnating her. Moments after the sex ended, Vincent received a call from John Aparo, who tells him to come to Mission Row, and to wear a suit. Fearing his death was near, Vincent and Chloe embraced each other, before he set off for John.

Rather than being executed, Vincent was instead put "on record" for John, one step under becoming a made man. Later that day, Vincent met up with an acquaintance named Ralph Lorenzo, an Italian multi-millionaire and airplane and racing tycoon, who offers Vincent a high-ranking position within his company. After meeting up with Ralph, Chloe encounters a woman named Layla, whom she falsely believes to be her daughter of the same name. Vincent and Chloe later return to the Richman Hotel, where they fall asleep in each other's arms, and a bright future ahead; or so they thought.

The season ends with Vincent waking up to find Chloe had gone missing.

### Season 3

The season begins with Vincent racing on his motorcycle to various bars, searching around for the missing Chloe Hill. He'd call her, to no avail. Eventually, he'd contact fellow mob associate Joe Martinelli, who helps Vincent look for Chloe. He later suffers a panic attack outside of a bar in Mirror Park, falling into a stupor of drunkenness and stress.

The following day, Vincent would come to find that Chloe was arrested for stalking the Layla woman from the previous season, and was sent to Flint County Psychiatric Facility for holding. Several days later, a disheveled Vincent drives up north to the facility to visit Chloe, who by then had fallen deep into a mental and emotional paralysis, barely recognizing him upon his arrival.

The season would progress as Vincent makes regular trips up north visit Chloe, all the while as his career in the Martorano crime family begins to look increasingly dim. Indictments and investigations were slamming the prospects of the organization, with John Aparo eventually being promoted to boss of the group. The cathouse and phantom billing scheme had died on the vine, and Vincent was left making peanuts.

Around this time as well, Ronald DiFiore was killed by his brother Rocco for being a rat, who was killed in prison a few days later.

Vincent later encounters Chloe at a Flint County Psychiatric Hospital visit, where she threw a fit and hid behind a table, and later attempted to attack staff. Vincent witnessed Roy Minnelli's abuse of Chloe, having a breakdown himself as he sat at the side of his sedated fiancée.

Vincent eventually encountered Adam Kaminski outside Eclipse Towers - the lavish apartment building Vincent once lived in several months prior - who told him to escape Los Santos with Chloe, if he could, and to leave this current life behind. Looking for any opportunity to get out of the criminal life, Vincent eventually finds stable income working as the bartender at Goldie's, and staying away from much of the criminal activities of the family. He'd take the young Antony Barone under his wing, tutoring him in the ways of the mob.

A week or so later, Vincent meets up with Chloe again, and she asks him to track down her estranged daughter Layla, who was living in a foster home in Los Santos at the time. Vincent succeeded, finding the 16-year old Layla and coaxing her foster parents to let her into the custody for $70,000 of which Vincent promises to collect. He eventually brought Layla up to San Fierro for a few days of bonding, and eventually to the Flint County facility, where she met with her mother Chloe - only for Chloe to be rejected by Layla.

Meanwhile, Chloe's condition at the Flint County Psychiatric Facility began to gradually worsen, with her suffering repeated abuse from orderly Roy Minnelli. Eventually, Chloe encounters a woman in the facility named Vanessa Warren. The two form a close and fleeting romantic relationship, as Vincent is kept away from Chloe by his mafia career and the walls of the hospital.

As more indictments are handed out and made members of the organization began to flee, Vincent asked permission from Samuel Marotta to retire from the organization once Chloe is released from Flint County, which he grants. Vincent remained a bartender at Goldie's for employment.

A few days later, during a routine visit to Chloe in the hospital, the facility is assaulted by unknown terrorists and Vincent is kidnapped, taken to the wilderness. He encounters Vince Williams, the leader of the La Fuente Blanca cartel - the largest and most powerful arms trafficking organization in San Andreas - as well as Nikolai Kalinov, a highly powerful ex-socialist dictator and crime lord, who states he's on a mission to find and kill Chloe Hill. He'd stab Vincent repeatedly in the back, leaving him to die. Vincent was then taken to a hospital in San Fierro, where he remained on life support and hanging unconscious with the threat of death.

Following the shooting, Chloe Hill is contacted by two mysterious agents, Korra Flir and Adam Harrow, later revealed to be part of The Maccaviti, an international, private counter-terrorist organization with a focus on studying ESP. They reveal to Chloe that Kalinov is on a mission to kidnap and kill her for unknown reasons, and that Chloe must work with them in order to escape the facility. Chloe is later contacted by Dr. Leonard Marvin, a Maccaviti-associate, who helps her on the inside by smuggling items for her.

While inside, however, Chloe was contacted face-to-face by Kalinov in the basement of the facility. She was forced to murder Glenn Hughes, a man who supposedly shared the "gift" of immortality that Chloe had, and who was allegedly from City 17, as well. It would be revealed that Kalinov also, potentially, has this gift, and that his wish is to "fatten" Chloe up with soul energy before killing her, himself.

Several days later, and after promising results on Chloe's mental state from Dr. Damien Krakower, Chloe's birthday is celebrated in the facility's cafeteria by Vanessa, who offers her a cute cupcake. Chloe rejects it, throwing the cupcake to the ground and crushing Vanessa's spirit. In a fit of rage and guilt, Chloe kills Janet Milo, another abusive orderly, and escapes the hospital by outrunning Kladruber, a "Blackeye" genetically-altered hitman sent by Kalinov.

Chloe encounters Patrick Carradine, a gay widow, who offers Chloe rest and a bed at his cottage in the nearby small town of Onyx. Fearing for her life, she remains inside the cabin, barely leaving. Eventually, Patrick leaves a note saying he was off to visit a pond, and once Chloe finds him, he had already committed suicide with a shotgun. Chloe then fully takes over his house and belongings for several days, before fleeing in his truck.

Chloe is then tracked down by Korra and Adam, who used the ping from Patrick's cellphone to pinpoint her location. They bring her to a safehouse in San Fierro, where a deal is made with The Maccaviti; new identities and freedom for Chloe and Vince, and to be reunited with her daughter Layla, in exchange for Chloe's servitude to The Maccaviti. Korra brings in two other subcontractors, Charlie Frey and Isaak Alvarez. A plan is hatched for Isaak to kidnap Layla from the foster home, for Korra and Adam to rescue Vincent from the San Fierro hospital, and for Charlie and Chloe to eliminate witnesses and corrupt doctors at the Flint County facility.

The plan goes awry, as Isaak massacres the entirety of the foster home, and Charlie kills Vanessa at the facility - after which, Chloe killed Charlie in revenge. Leonard Marvin was also later killed by Kladruber, with Kalinov and the others nowhere to be seen.

Korra and Adam proceeded into the San Fierro medical center after Vincent, killing a nurse on the way. They found Vincent inside a hospital room, frail and with a beard, and sitting in his own feces and urine. A Blackeye came into the room, and was killed by Vincent. They later brought Vincent back to the safehouse, along with Isaak bringing Layla. The trio stayed in the safehouse, and a few days later, set off for a new safehouse in the South Seas apartment building in Paleto Bay.

The season ends with Vincent, Chloe and Layla funneling into the new safehouse, with an unsure future on the horizon.