Jibaro is a reimagined tale of a Siren who gets infatuated by a deaf soldier who is unaffected by her deathly voice. However, he uses her for what he needs and then discards her. Jibaro is actually an allegory for greed and toxic relationships.
You see, both of them were attracted to one another for all the wrong reasons. The soldier only wanted the Siren’s jewels, whereas she was intrigued only because her voice couldn’t kill him. In the end, they both end up losing, as such relationships usually end. Keep reading to hear the entire breakdown of Jibaro and its meaning.
The entire episode has no dialogue but is presented through sound,
choreography, and breathtaking visuals. It starts in Puerto Rican
wilderness when a group of soldiers – most likely colonialists – stop to
rest and replenish at a nearby lake. One of them, Jibaro – the main
protagonist of the episode – is deaf and finds a jewel in the shallows.
Soon, other soldiers realize there are treasures in the water, and,
judging by their gold-ornamented horses, pillaging isn’t foreign to them
at all. However, it quickly backfires when a Siren emerges from the
lake. She is embroiled completely in gold and jewels to awaken the greed
among the men.
She starts to sing and dance, and her voice sends the soldiers into a
frenzy. Most of them kill each other, while the others keep walking
towards the Siren in a trance, and their heavy armors pull them to the
bottom of the lake, drowning them in the process. The deaf knight
remains clueless and unaffected since he can’t hear the Siren, and he
runs away.
The Siren is intrigued and infatuated with the deaf soldier, as it was
clearly the first time she’d met a deaf person that’s unaffected by her
song. So, she tracks the soldier up the river, and when he falls asleep,
the Siren lays down with him instead of killing him like the rest of the
army.
When the soldier wakes up, he is frightened by the Siren, and she runs
back into the river, walking on water atop a nasty waterfall. The deaf
knight sees that she is covered in gold and jewels, so he, captivated by
the riches, starts following her into the river.
The Siren approaches him, and they, enamored by one another, share a
passionate kiss. However, her razor-sharp teeth and mouth hurt the
soldier severely, and at this point, he shows his true intentions. He
only wants her jewels, so he knocks the Siren out and starts ripping the
gold and jewels from her body.
It severely hurts the Siren, as the treasures are a part of her, like
her skin. The deaf soldier throws her body into the river, down the
waterfall, and escapes with his colossal loot. However, as the Siren
bleeds into the river, it takes her back to the lake, while her magical
blood turns the water into a glowing shade of red.
The soldier carries the huge load of treasures and gets exhausted, so he
stops by the water to wash his face and drink. It was a dire mistake for
him, as the reddish water now had magical properties from the Siren’s
blood, healing the deaf soldier and allowing him to hear.
The Siren survived, bloody and naked, and she can’t dance anymore.
However, the soldier can now hear her agonizing screams, which lure him
into the lake, just like the rest of his army, and he drowns due to the
heavy armor he’s wearing.
Jibaro is a reimagined story about Sirens and their deathly voices that
lured men into the water, drowning. However, it’s much deeper than that.
It is actually a symbolic representation of greed and lust, but first
and foremost, a depiction of toxic relationships between partners.
None of the characters are actually the good guy in this story. At
first, you feel as if the Siren is the evil entity of the story.
However, later, you feel some sort of empathy towards her, seeing how
the deaf soldier used her and nearly killed her for his own selfish
reasons. In the end, both of them entered that “toxic relationship” for
all the wrong reasons.
The Siren wanted to kill the deaf soldier, just like the rest of the
army. However, the only reason why she was ever interested in him after
that is because her voice didn’t work against him. She became infatuated
and obsessed with the one guy she couldn’t get.
On the other hand, the soldier could’ve easily walked away when the
Siren tried to lure him into the river. However, he chose to enter that
relationship for his own selfish reasons – all he wanted was the Siren’s
treasures, so he tricked her into a kiss, only to knock her out and take
everything from her, almost killing the Siren in the process.
In the end, neither of them are the heroes of the story, and neither
gets a happy ending. The soldier’s actions come right around to bite him
as he regains his hearing due to the blood he spilled into the water,
which eventually leads to his demise.
On the other hand, the Siren is left with nothing – hurt, broken, unable
to dance anymore, barely clinging onto life. Mielgo did a fantastic job
portraying a toxic relationship in which none of the parties gain
anything but get hurt, broken, and devastated for their selfish reasons.