‘1899’ Ending Explained: What Was a Simulation, and What Wasn’t?

From Westworld to Twin Peaks, there are a lot of confusing shows on television. And then there’s the world of Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar. The German creative duo were first introduced to stateside audiences thanks to Netflix’s Dark. Now they’re back with 1899, and the headaches are just starting.

Whereas Dark played with the concept of time travel and questioned whether time itself was linear or more of a flat circle, 1899 takes that brand of sci-fi philosophizing and applies it to simulations. What follows is the overseas voyage from hell. If you’ve finished 1899, chances are you need some help figuring out exactly what you just watched. On that front, we have your back.

Who Are Henry, Daniel, and Elliot in 1899?

Long story story? They’re all Maura’s (Emily Beecham) family. Henry (Anton Lesser) was the first character whose true identity was revealed. Roughly halfway through the season, Maura admitted that her father was Henry Singleton, the supposed owner of these ships and a man with a nasty human experimentation habit. That proved to be about half true, but we’ll get to that later. For now, let’s talk about Daniel and Elliot.

After spending most of Season 1 following Maura around the ship and secretly typing away on triangle-based devices, Daniel (Aneurin Barnard) revealed that he was Maura’s husband of 12 years. You know what that means. “The boy” was never just any ordinary kid. He was Maura and Daniel’s son, Elliot (Fflyn Edwards). And Elliot is arguably the biggest piece of this ocean-sized puzzle.

Who Is “The Creator” in 1899?

Throughout 1899‘s first season, the most mysterious passengers repeatedly referred to someone as “the Creator.” Everyone on the Kerberos and the Prometheus were part of a simulation designed by said Creator. Maura was confident that this shadowy figure was her father, but she was wrong. In reality, the Creator was… drumroll, please… Maura.

Yeah, this is a Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar show, so some explaining is necessary. In what Daniel claimed was the real world — or at least the closest thing they can come to it — he, Maura, and Elliot were a happy little family of brilliant scientists. But when Elliot started dying, Maura used her vast intelligence for evil. Well, maybe not evil, but grief-induced desperation that inadvertently ruined lives. Using her research inspired by Plato’s Cave, she created this seaside simulation as a way she could spend more time with her beloved son. But somewhere between the first simulation and the 50th, her memories were erased. Henry was never holding his daughter and grandson hostage. Instead, he was trapped by Maura, the same as everyone else on the Kerberos.

What Happened to Eyk?

Poor, loyal Captain Eyk Larsen (Andreas Pietschmann). He survived his shipping company telling him to sink his vessel, a mutiny, watching dozens of his passengers commit suicide, and traveling through multiple panels, some of which were particularly traumatizing to him. Throughout all this madness, he stayed by Maura’s side. And that may have been his greatest mistake.

Toward the end of “The Key”, Eyk and Maura were cornered by Eyk’s first mate, Sebastian (Tino Mewes). As the audience, we knew that Sebastian was working with Henry all along, but of course Maura and Eyk didn’t know that. Sebastian flicked a switch on his mysterious controller, instantly killing Eyk. But don’t worry. Eyk will likely be back in the next simulation. On second thought, do worry because that’s horrifying.

What Happened to the Rest of the Passengers?

After all of jumping into the ocean and various sea-based accidents, there were only eight members of the Kerberos left in Episode 8. Not-so-coincidentally, they all had letters. We have no idea what those are about, but we do know the fates of our remaining passengers.

Eyk, as we covered, died via weird triangle device, and we’ll get to Maura in a second. That left the pregnant and Danish Tove (Clara Rosager), the geisha-posing and Chinese Ying Li (Isabella Wei), Spanish fake priest Ramiro (José Pimentão), wealthy English socialite Virginia (Rosalie Craig), newly liberated member of the Parisian elite Clémence (Mathilde Ollivier), and Jérôme (Yann Gael), the French stowaway. We’re not trying to be extra thorough by reminding you where everyone is from. These differing nationalities are actually a huge deal because as these six remaining passengers dove into the horrifying depths of the Kerberos, they were nearly incapable of communicating with each other.

“The Key” repeatedly splits this group up into various pairs and shot them into new zones hidden on the ship. Naturally, each one of these areas was a waking nightmare. For example, Ling Yi escaped from the black shapes infecting the ship by fleeing to portal that opened into a desolate field. That’s where she found a container that sounded like it was hiding her dead mother, Yuk Je (Gabby Wong). But when Ling Yi opened the container, a man-like figure made of black sludge appeared. See? Horrifying.

Most of these surviving passengers were haunted by ghosts of their loved ones. But at the end, they all ended up in the same place: staring down the end of this simulation. As they held hands and watched the fiery vortex of their own perception burn, Maura had her own journey.

How Did 1899 End for Maura?

About halfway through “The Key”, Henry dropped a truth bomb. No matter what happens in any simulation, Maura always chose to keep Elliot alive, and Daniel always chose Maura. That’s important.

After Eyk was killed, Sebastian took Maura to see Henry. Once there, he explained to her everything we already know: This warped simulation was entirely her doing, and Henry was determined to put an end to it. He drugged her yet again, one of the beginning stages in restarting this simulation. But instead of waking up on the ship, Maura instead woke up in the same field near the same grave she had traveled to several times before.

Daniel eventually found her in the bunker where he had been hiding Elliot. That’s when he explained what happened. The simulation allows users to reprogram objects. Knowing that, he reprogrammed the syringe Henry injected into Maura’s neck so that she travelled to this bunker instead of back to the ship. He also reprogrammed the master key, changing it from the black pyramid and key that’s in Henry’s possession to the colorful pyramid and wedding ring in Maura’s hands. Why did he do all of that? Because he knew that Maura was their best chance at breaking out of here. And in order to save them all, she will need to confront her brother.

You read that correctly. Maura isn’t the only manipulative scientist in the family. Her brother Ciaran, whom Maura has been searching for all along, also falls into this camp. Originally, Ciaran was trapped in Maura’s simulation just like everyone else. But he somehow found a way to take control of the entire operation. So while Maura may have created this hell, Ciaran has been running it.

1899 ended with Maura waking up one last time. But instead of waking up on the ocean, she did so in space. She unplugged herself from her Matrix-like setup and found a note in the middle of the room that read “May your coffee kick in before reality does.” Sound familiar? That’s the same text that appeared in every book aboard the Kerberos, further proving this was all a simulation. Using the computer monitor underneath the note, Maura learned that the ship Prometheus was really Project Prometheus, and there are 1,423 passengers and 550 crew members currently hurdling through space. If that’s not trippy enough, check out the date. Yeah, we were never in 1899. Instead, we were 200 years in the future, specifically on October 19, 2099.

Season 1 ended with a message from Ciaran himself. Using the monitor, Maura’s brother wrote, “Hello sister. Welcome to reality.” Is this the real reality? Is there another simulation we don’t know about? Who is Maura really? And where the heck is this spaceship going? We have no idea, but we know for a fact that we want a Season 2.