Summary
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The German Netflix sci-fi 1899 Intertwined sci-fi concepts and cliffhangers, leaving viewers puzzled and intrigued after each episode.
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Kerberos and Prometheus, the two ships in 1899Symbolized reality and perception, playing a crucial role in the plot of the show.
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Due to the cancellation of 1899The complex themes of reality, grief and control are left unexplored at the end of the show.
With Netflix 1899 After just one season, the cliffhanger twists and turns of its eight episodes require little explanation. during his life,1899 Explains a lot of sci-fi concepts and narrative devices without offering a clear explanation for any of them. To add another layer of intrigue and drama, 1899 End each episode with a puzzling cliffhanger while gradually unfolding the traumatic backstories of its primary characters. 1899 took the best of both genres and delivered one of the most mind-bending shows in recent memory.
While The original Netflix series took its time unraveling its underlying mysteries and intentionally kept viewers white-knuckled with its slow pace, it proved rewarding when it unveiled the heart that held its baffling plot points together. 1899 Also boasted impressive set design, diverse characters, and Lots of relatable themes dealing with sexuality, death, religious fanaticism and class divides. Netflix decided to cancel 1899 Despite its success. With so much happening in its eight-episode run, the 1899 The ending has even more questions than answers.
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The Kerberos and the Prometheus in 1899 declared
Kerberos is not an everyday ship
A ship named Kerberos is the primary setting for 1899s roster of diverse characters, while Prometheus is another ship that was reported missing earlier Kerberos Set sail. Early in 1899It becomes clear that Kerberos is no ordinary ship and accommodates many technologies that are almost incomprehensible to the passengers. 1899 Takes a dark turn when Kerberos‘ Crew receives a message from a nearby ship, which, upon discovery, turns out to be Prometheus.
After finding only a young boy, Elliot, on the ghost ship, Prometheus’ crew takes him aboard and sets sail back home. Little do they realize that another passenger from Prometheus Daniel got on the ship.
Chaos ensues on the Kerberos As passengers begin to drop dead, while Daniel tries to force Maura (Emily Beecham) to question her sense of perception. 1899 Explains the mysterious events in its last few episodes by revealing that the ship is a simulation that is manipulating the reality of passengers. Everything from their memories to their physical appearance is a construct of the simulation.
From a mythological point of view, Cerberus/Kerberos is the three-headed guard dog that prevents the dead from escaping the underworld. Given how 1899s Kerberos Serving as a prison of perception and reality for the passengers, the name makes sense. Likewise, the name of the other ship comes from the Greek myth of Prometheus, who was punished with eternal torment for stealing fire from Mount Olympus and parallels the passengers living in an endless loop of their simulated traumas.
Who created the simulation in 1899?
It is a red herring around the nature of 1899’s reality
Red herring in early episodes of 1899 It is initially explained that Maura’s father, Henry Singleton (Anton Lesser), is the evil genius behind the simulation. For example, Maura keeps claiming that her father removed her memories after she and her brother learned about his secret experiments on the ship. In another scene, Henry spies on the passengers of Kerberos From the comfort of his room. Although these moments are convincing enough to suggest that Henry is the architect of the simulation, The 1899 The ending reveals that Maura is his creator.
Outside the simulation, Maura once lived with her husband Daniel (Aneurin Barnard), and son Elliot (Fflin Edwards). When Elliot’s health began to decline due to a mysterious illness, she was unable to deal with the pain and grief. In an attempt to “preserve“Her son, she transferred his consciousness to a simulated reality where she and Daniel could spend time together. 1899 Little explains how the simulation grew from a child’s playroom to a multi-layered system, or how Henry was part of it. However, it seems likely that many other forces got involved with the technology and escalated it into chaos.
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Working this to his advantage, Henry misused his daughter’s technology by creating more simulations In his primary simulation to study the dark depths of the human brain. Maura explains his downward spiral in a short conversation with Eyk (Andreas Pietschmann) by recalling that her mother had Alzheimer’s, which gradually destroyed her ability to recognize family members. After her death, Henry began to cope with his loss by meticulously studying the human mind, hoping to find answers about his wife’s illness.
In time, he took this too far by making his daughter and her family victims of his experiments. The fact that Maura purposefully chose to erase her memories to deal with the traumatic death of her son proves to be both a boon and a bane for Henry. While it allows him to manipulate her technology and use it to his advantage, he finds himself in trouble when he realizes that only Maura possesses the code to escape the simulations.
What the pyramid, the beetle and the key mean in 1899’s simulation
The symbols are codes for the simulation
The boy’s pyramid and Maura’s key are the codes required to finish the simulations, vi 1899 Explained in later episodes. Since Maura has no memories of her past life, she cannot recall anything about the key. Henry puts her through the recurring simulations to help her recall where she kept it. It is also possible Henry placed the pyramid symbols over the ship to jog her memory, or Maura put them there to remember the key after losing her memory. The latter seems plausible since the pyramid and key symbol are tattooed behind her son’s ear.
1899 Symbolically explained details that required a deeper reflection. Just like the pyramid and the key, the beetle is also a code that unlocks closed doors. The significance of the bug harkens back to one of Maura’s memories from the real world. In the memory, Maura asks Elliot to release a bug he traps in a jar to teach him the proverbial “Set them free if you love them.Because of this, the bug probably appeared or was designed as a code for literal freedom from locked doors in the simulation.
Are the trapdoor simulations real reflections of the past?
Their nature is not confirmed, but there are theories
like 1899 explained, Under each passenger bed there is a plane. Each trapdoor opens to an underground chamber leading to a simulation of the respective passenger’s disturbing past. Considering how each character’s past is likely just a construct, the trapdoor simulations probably have nothing to do with the passengers’ reality. This is further confirmed when the passengers start going through each other’s memory simulations after Daniel changes the code.
The virus in 1899 explained
The black substance comes from a hack
Massive black structures begin growing out of the ship’s walls towards the 1899 Finally, and when Virginia Wilson (Rosalie Craig) touches one, the black mass begins to spread over her body. Like everything else in the simulation, The black substance is also a code that represents a virus. Daniel intentionally hacks into the system and introduces the virus to the simulation to prevent Henry from restarting the loop. This explains why he asks other passengers to avoid touching it.
What Plato’s Cave Allegory Means in 1899
The Netflix show harnesses a fundamental philosophical theory
In his allegory, titled “The Cave,” Plato describes a hypothetical scenario where a group of people are chained in a cave, and all they can see is a blank wall in front of them. The wall reflects shadows of the real world behind them but never gives them an accurate depiction of reality. Despite the limitations in their perception, The cave people accept the reality that they are presented with Because this is the only reality they know.
Movies like the Christopher Nolan sci-fi film InterstellarMartin Sources Shutter IslandAnd even the Wachowskis The matrix made references to the same allegory. Henry recalls that Maura used to obsess about Plato’s allegory when she was younger. This is probably where she found inspiration for creating alternate realities – or, rather, shadows of reality – through simulations.
However, after she lost her memories and Henry took control of her simulations, he became the bearer of reality while her simulation became just a shadow on the wall. Since Henry is also part of a simulation, Plato’s allegory is an endless cycle 1899 Where the leader of the simulation chain remains unknown.
How Henry’s black and white syringes work
They each serve a specific, important purpose
Like all objects in the simulations, both injections are codes that serve a specific purpose. Their function is similar to the blue and red pills The matrix In that they change the perception of those who take them. Henry uses the black injection to reset Maura’s memories And send you into a new simulation. In contrast, he uses the white to restore his memories and subsequent understanding of reality. 1899 Little is explained about the syringes explicitly, but their uses are shown in the events of the series.
Why Sirian took control of Maura’s simulation
No official reason was given
to the 1899 Finally, Henry gets his hands on the pyramid and the key, but Daniel still manages to stay one step ahead. Daniel manipulates the syringe’s code so that when Henry injects his black serum into Maura, she reaches the first simulation playroom she has created for her son. This is where Daniel tells her that he also changed the key code to Laura’s ring and the pyramid code to a toy in Elliot’s playroom. With the new key and pyramid, Maura finally breaks out of the simulation loop in the show’s closing arc.
However, considering how Daniel warns her that her brother Sirian has taken over the simulations, her journey seems to be far from over. Sirian’s identity and motivations remain unknown Even after these 1899 ending It is clear, however, that at the end of 1899He is at the top of the simulation chain and is perhaps the only one who experiences reality as it is; Others see only the shadows of reality that he wants them to see.
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Did Maura escape the simulation at the end of 1899?
Most of the ending is speculation
The 1899 The ending sees Maura wake up in a space station where she finds the other passengers plugged into a car. This confirms that no one died on that ship. She finds a screen that reveals the name of the space station as “Project Prometheus“And the current year as”2099.“This is followed by a”Welcome to Reality” message from Cirian, who confirms that he knows about his sister’s escape from the simulation.
Since 1899 After all, whether Maura has escaped all simulations or is simply trapped in another is pure speculation. However, since the space station shares its name with the ship, it is possibly another simulated reality created by Cirian. Another detail that confirms this is the phrase “Let your coffee kick in before reality” That Sirian leaves for Maura in the space station. In a previous scene, Anchor and Ramiro find the same phrase written across a book in the ship’s control room.
Although 1899 Never explained the meaning of the phrase, it seems to be Sirian’s way of shaking his captive. By alluding to the false sense of wakefulness that comes when the brain is flooded with dopamine after the consumption of coffee, Cirian seems to offend Maura and others who willingly chose to live in fake simulations just to deal with the burdens of their realities. Since he greets you with the same message at the space station, he may be about to put you and the passengers through another puzzling simulation.
The real meaning of the 1899 end
Netflix’s cancellation means that the complex thematic depth of 1899 is not fully explored
1899 was canceled by Netflix before season 2 arrived, despite the history of German period sci-fi still clearly having much more ground to cover. As such, it is difficult to determine exactly what the end of 1899 Means, because the point at which the show was finished was not the end of the series, but only a single chapter of it. However, since the final moments saw Maura waking up on a space station in 2099, there are some hints about the larger meaning of 1899s history.
It is clear that 1899 is a show that wants viewers to question the nature of reality. While the “the characters exist in a simulation” trope has been done before (most famously, of course, by The matrix movies), 1899 revisits the idea but with the extra depth afforded by the additional screen time of a TV show. what’s more, 1899 Does something quite unique in that Maura has no memories of creation 1899It’s simulated reality.
There are additional layers to this as well. Maura tried to keep her dead son, Elliot, alive by transferring his consciousness into the simulation. This, combined with her amnesia about the fact that she lives in a simulation of her own design, clearly shows that the meaning behind 1899 would have focused on denial and trying to escape from the emotional pain of tragic loss.
Unfortunately, because Netflix canceled 1899 After season 1, it seems that viewers will never know for sure how the full story would have played out and what the deeper meaning behind it would be. Many fans have started petitions to try and get it 1899 Renewed, and the thematic depth of the story is a key reason for this. It is clear that the end of 1899 Would have been something more than the discovery that Kerberos exists in a simulation, which was only a step on the wide journey Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar’s cerebral sci-fi is taking viewers.
1899 is a period piece drama that centers around a ship full of immigrants headed to the new land and entering the new century. Riding on the steamship Kerebos, the multilingual passengers contemplate how their lives will be different in this new era. However, when the ship comes across a missing ship known as the Prometheus, the passengers will be taken by some mysterious experiences and drag them through their worst nightmares.
- Figure
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Emily Beecham, Aneurin Barnard, Andreas Pietschmann, Miguel Bernardeau, Maciej Musial, Anton Lesser, Rosalie Craig, Mathilde Ollivier
- Release date
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17 November 2022
- Showrunner
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ram bo odr