This text comprises spoilers for 1899 season 1.
1899 is a weird, dense sci-fi series. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who watched Dark, the previous Netflix original series from 1899 creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar. After stringing out its mysteries across its first six episodes, though, 1899’s final two installments finally offer the answers to lots of the questions that were introduced within the show’s premiere. 1899 episode 7 even confirms, via a key line of dialogue from Daniel Solace (Aneurin Barnard), that the show’s steamship-centric world is, indeed, a part of a simulation.
That confirmation is followed by the reveal that 1899’s simulated reality was created by none aside from the show’s ostensible lead, Maura Franklin (Emily Beecham). Within the wake of those discoveries, the world of the Kerberos begins to disintegrate at an alarming rate, and its inhabitants quickly find themselves being pulled into the middle of a deadly whirlpool. The remaining passengers of the Kerberos don’t, nonetheless, die because of this of their ship’s “destruction.” As an alternative, they find yourself in the identical alternate version of reality that Captain Eyk Larsen (Andreas Pietschmann) found himself trapped in at the top of 1899 episode 6.
These twists and turns all set the stage for the climactic struggle in 1899 episode 8 between Maura and her father, Henry (Anton Lesser). After the latter captures Maura and Daniel’s son, Elliot (Fflyn Edwards), and shows him a vision of his mother torturing him, it even begins to appear like Henry goes to return out on top of his season-long struggle along with his daughter and her husband. Because of Maura’s growing awareness of her situation and several other good, strategic moves by Daniel, though, Henry’s victory is ultimately snatched from his hands on the last moment.
Knowing that Henry would likely have the option to secure Maura’s key to escaping their simulated reality, Daniel spends much of 1899’s Season 1 finale causing more havoc and chaos to spread throughout Maura’s simulation. Sneaking through the invisible tunnels that bridge the memories of 1899’s characters together, Daniel manages to secretly rewrite the very code of the simulation he’s trapped inside. In doing so, he’s in a position to turn the simulation’s original exit key right into a useless prop and rob Henry of his victory. Moments later, in his final conversation with Maura, Daniel also reveals that Henry was never truly his and Maura’s enemy.
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That title belongs to Maura’s oft-discussed, mysteriously absent brother, Ciaran. In keeping with Daniel, Maura’s father has at all times been just as “trapped” of their simulation as everyone else in 1899. It was, nonetheless, Ciaran who Daniel says “took over the entire program” after Maura put herself within it. “You have got to get up. You have got to stop him, or every little thing will probably be lost,” Daniel tells Maura just moments before she finally makes her escape from 1899’s central simulation.
Within the scene that follows, a short-haired Maura wakes up in a chamber that also comprises nearly every certainly one of 1899’s major characters, all of whom are strapped into the identical alternate reality device that Maura unplugs herself from. As she looks around in any respect the opposite faces within the chamber, Maura also realizes that the room itself is nothing multiple a part of a technologically advanced ship fittingly named the Prometheus, which just so happens to be floating through space when Maura wakes up.
Because of a helpful computer status update, we quickly learn that Maura and her fellow passengers are all members of a “survival mission” often known as “Project Prometheus.” Maura also realizes, much to her confusion and horror, that the present 12 months shouldn’t be actually 1899, but 2099. As she tries to process all of this, though, Maura is shocked to see her ship receive a message from none aside from her brother, Ciaran, which reads, “Hello sister. Welcome to reality.” At that ominous moment, 1899’s first season cuts to black for the last time.
It stays to be seen whether or not the twists featured in 1899‘s season 1 finale will probably be seen as satisfying or not by the show’s viewers. Either way, there’s no denying that 1899 episode 8 totally redefines the series’ story and setting in several unexpected ways. In case that wasn’t enough, its final moments also set the stage for a conflict between Maura and Ciaran that would prove to be much more compelling and thrilling than fans think. That’s assuming, in fact, that 1899 does get renewed for a second season.
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As all season finales should, the ultimate installment of 1899’s first season also avoids totally resolving a few of the show’s more profound mysteries, including whether or not Maura really did drug and deceive Elliot in the way in which that Henry leads his grandson to imagine. Unfortunately, 1899 fans will likely must wait for more episodes of the series to be released before they get to learn anything recent about Elliot and Maura’s pre-simulation lives together.
1899 season 1 is streaming now on Netflix.
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