The Rips pull Kya into their dead­ly grip in 1967, as she releas­es her boat into the sea, deter­mined to face the fury of the water. Dri­ven by an over­whelm­ing emo­tion­al storm, she curs­es as she heads straight into the vio­lent rips of the Gulf Stream, a ter­ri­to­ry she had always avoid­ed. Kya, expe­ri­enced in nav­i­gat­ing the calmer, more pre­dictable cur­rents of her coastal home, now seeks to con­front the much more dan­ger­ous waters that sym­bol­ize the depth of her anguish and inner tur­moil. The rips, with their pow­er­ful and unpre­dictable force, are the per­fect metaphor for the emo­tion­al bat­tle that rages with­in her, and she ven­tures into them with the same deter­mi­na­tion she applies to fac­ing her own pain.

As the boat is tossed around by the mer­ci­less waves, Kya strug­gles with the sea’s relent­less fury, mir­ror­ing the chaos of her own heart. The rips, unlike the famil­iar cur­rents of the coast, prove far more dif­fi­cult to nav­i­gate, throw­ing her off course and test­ing her endurance. Though she knows the ocean well, this bat­tle is different—her body is bat­tered, soaked, and dis­ori­ent­ed, yet the phys­i­cal pain she expe­ri­ences on the water pales in com­par­i­son to the emo­tion­al pain she is try­ing to escape. The sea’s unpre­dictable vio­lence reflects Kya’s emo­tion­al tur­moil, height­ened by her mem­o­ries of betray­al and aban­don­ment, espe­cial­ly from Chase, whose actions have left deep scars on her heart. Each wave that hits her boat serves as a reminder of the forces of rejec­tion that have shaped her life.

This har­row­ing encounter with the rips not only high­lights Kya’s vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty but also her resilience, as she con­tin­ues to fight against both nature and her own feel­ings of aban­don­ment. Kya’s dis­il­lu­sion­ment with Chase and her grow­ing under­stand­ing of how love can so often mir­ror the decep­tive forces of nature are woven into her thoughts dur­ing this time at sea. She sees par­al­lels between the false promis­es of romance and the way the nat­ur­al world can dis­guise its dan­gers under a beau­ti­ful sur­face. She draws strength from the wis­dom she has gained from both nature and poet­ry, real­iz­ing that she must let go of the attach­ments that have only served to fur­ther her soli­tude. It is in this painful but enlight­en­ing moment that Kya starts to under­stand the impor­tance of let­ting go of illu­sions and accept­ing that she must be self-reliant to find peace.

When Kya final­ly finds a sand­bar amidst the chaos, the fierce waves that once threat­ened to con­sume her begin to recede, and with them, a new sense of clar­i­ty emerges. Here, on this small patch of land, Kya is able to reflect on the jour­ney she has just endured, both phys­i­cal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly. Sur­round­ed by the unex­pect­ed beau­ty of the shells that have washed ashore, she finds not only solace but a new sense of pur­pose. The shells, which she has always asso­ci­at­ed with her con­nec­tion to nature, now become a sym­bol of her inner strength and resilience. In her soli­tude, Kya real­izes that the storms of life may always be present, but she has the pow­er to find peace amidst the chaos, just as she has found beau­ty in her soli­tude.

As she pre­pares to return to the shore, Kya choos­es a safer path, sym­bol­iz­ing her growth and the lessons learned from nav­i­gat­ing both the sea and her per­son­al strug­gles. Her jour­ney through the rips, while ter­ri­fy­ing and painful, has led her to a deep­er under­stand­ing of her­self and the impor­tance of self-reliance. Armed with the wis­dom of the sea and the qui­et com­fort found in her com­mu­nion with nature, Kya faces the future with a new per­spec­tive. No longer seek­ing solace from exter­nal rela­tion­ships, she acknowl­edges that she must face life on her own terms, find­ing strength in her soli­tude and con­nec­tion to the nat­ur­al world around her. The rips may have test­ed her, but they also taught her the pow­er of resilience and the neces­si­ty of embrac­ing the chal­lenges that come with self-dis­cov­ery.