‘Carnival Row’ Ending Explained: Who Created the Dark Asher?

Carnival Row Season 1 ends with a wallop of an episode full of shocking twists and crazy reveals. Who is Rycroft Philostrate’s father? Who created the Dark Asher? What is Sophie Longerbane’s deal? As it turns out, the murder mystery at the heart of Carnival Row had everything to do with Rycroft’s background. In fact…everything in Carnival Row has to do with Rycroft’s backstory??

**SPOILERS FOR CARNIVAL ROW AHEAD**

As it turns out, the Dark Asher terrorizing Carnival Row was specifically created to hunt down Rycroft “Philo” Philostrate (Orlando Bloom). Philo is the long-lost son of faerie singing star Aisling and none other than Absalom Breakspear (Jared Harris). The love affair was doomed, thanks to Absalom’s political ambitions and the prejudice of the time. So when Philo was born, Aisling went to her friend Kostin, who would later be headmaster at the Light of the Martyr Foundling Home. He took Philo in, and enlisted his secret lover, Dr. Morange (Gregory Gudgeon), to clip the baby’s wings. Aisling would occasionally visit the boy in secret to sing him an original lullaby.

So why did Aisling, the Headmaster, Morange, and eventually the Haruspex (Alice Krige) have to die? It all has to do with the ambitions of Absalom’s wife, Piety Breakspear (Indira Varma). She came from an upper class family and only deigned to marry the middle class Absalom because her family’s oracle, the Haruspex, predicted great things for Absalom — and even greater for his son. Piety receives a letter in the name of Aisling, spilling the secret of Philo’s birth. This set Piety off because it meant the prophecy could have been about Absalom’s love child, Philo. Plus, she couldn’t bear the thought of her own son Jonah (Arty Froushan) amounting to nothing.

Knowing only the name of Absalom’s lover, Aisling, Piety creates a Dark Asher and sets it after her. Her rage leads to the violence of the murder, but the purpose of it all was to learn Aisling’s secrets. Apparently, in the world of Carnival Row, you can use magic to read a person’s secrets in their livers. This is why internal organs were stripped of all the corpses. With each kill, Piety was getting closer and closer to the truth about Philo.

Here’s where things get stickier. Piety had been keeping her own secret for years. She had an affair with Absalom’s political rival, Ritter Longerbane (Ronan Vibert), and she did not know if Jonah was Longerbane’s son or Breakspear’s. Jonah discovers the truth of his parentage from his new secret lover, Sophie Longerbane (Caroline Ford). She is incredibly duplicitous and has seduced Jonah with the full knowledge that they are probably siblings. When Jonah finds out, he lets the rumor slip to his father.

After Absalom and Philo meet for the first time, Absalom returns home with the intent of helping save both his son and his son’s faerie lover Vignette Stonemoss (Cara Delevingne) from jail. However, what Absalom doesn’t know is his household staff has been infiltrated by a faun who has been radicalized by an anti-human cult. He attempts to assassinate Absalom, but fails. On his sick bed, Absalom confronts Piety about the rumors that Jonah is in fact Longerbane’s son. Realizing she’s been made, Piety suffocates Absalom with a pillow and then uses his liver to find out the name of Philo’s lover, Vignette. She then lures Philo into a trap to save Vignette. Philo faces down the Dark Asher and Piety, and with Vignette’s help, kills them both.

You got all that? It’s about to get crazier.

It turns out that Aisling never sent the letter to Piety. Jonah figures out that his own lover/sister, Sophie Longerbane, did. She admits to it, and reveals that she manufactured a masterplan to position her and Jonah in positions of power. She assumed that the rumors would lead to chaos, and they did. Her father’s death allowed her to take her father’s seat, and Absalom’s death leaves the Chancellor’s seat in Jonah’s lap. She suggests they marry, unite the political parties of The Burgue, and crack down on a “common enemy”: the faeries.

And so, in the final moments of Carnival Row Season 1, all Fae are sequestered in the Row, and shot on sight if they try to escape. This leads to an emotional moment where Philo has to choose freedom, or to self-identify as “critch.” He chooses to identify as fae and ends up imprisoned in Carnival Row with his love, Vignette.

Carnival Row has already been renewed for Season 2. 

Where to stream Carnival Row