The Pyramid – As this episode of 1899 begins, Tove (Clara Rosager) runs through the woods while yelling for Ada (Vida Sjorslev). Once she finds her, Tove tells her that they need to go home. Ada hides behind a tree and urges Tove to come find her. As she approaches the tree, a man comes out with a shotgun in his hands. After a brief scare, he wakes up on the ship where Sebastian (Tino Mewes) is trying to get a reply from the company. She gets up, charges Maura (Emily Beecham), and demands to know where the boy is. Tove blames the boy for all the deaths. Daniel Solace (Aneurin Barnard) reminds them that they’re all going to die out here if they don’t get the engine up and running again. Eyk Larsen (Andreas Pietschmann) agrees and says they have to find land. He asks them to split up while sending Olek and Franz to the engine room to fire up the engines. He wants to send a distress signal along with their coordinates.
Virginia Wilson (Rosalie Craig) is asked to organize a search for possible survivors. Eyk and Maura will try to find the boy. He believes they’ll have to trust one another if they’re going to survive this. After the intro, there is a power surge and something happens to the equipment downstairs. Maura stops Eyk to ask why he didn’t tell them about her father. He questions why she didn’t reveal that he was somehow captain of the Prometheus. Maura thanks him for not thinking she is crazy before saying they better get going. Clemence (Mathilde Ollivier), Tove, and Iben search for survivors. Tove believes she hears something behind her. When she asks her mother about it, Iben (Maria Erwolter) asks if she believes her now because she is chosen. Tove tells her to stop. Virginia suggests splitting up. Lucien (Jonas Bloquet) goes with Olek (Maciej Musial), Ling, and Jerome. They stop when they notice something black hanging down from the ceiling. Angel (Miguel Bernardeau) panics as he asks them to explain what is happening.
Lucien almost touches it, but Daniel stops him and reminds him that they don’t know what it is or what it does. Franz (Isaak Dentler) admits he wants to get off of this ship. Maura tells Eyk that the boy took her down the shaft before he disappeared. When he questions if she is right and this is all a dream, Maura wonders which one of them is dreaming it. Once they climb out of the shaft, Maura says it looks like the place where she grew up although it feels different. She reveals that the building over there belongs to her father. Clemence and Tove think they’re wasting their time because there is no one there. Tove has to lie on the bed because of the baby. Clemence always wanted lots of children until her sister had two and she found out how annoying they can be. She thinks it is like all those things she wanted so badly when she was little, but it ends up being the opposite of what you imagined. Clemence admires Tove because she seems so strong and free.
She says they claim men invented dresses and heels so women won’t be able to run away. She takes off her dress and puts on a pair of pants instead. Olek tells the others that they need to make a fire on both sides. He leaves Ling Yi (Isabella Wei) so he can climb up to get coal, but she ends up following him because she doesn’t want to stay down there with them. Ling helps him with the lever since it gets stuck frequently. Once they get it, they fall to the ground and Ling picks up his postcard. When she asks if it is from a girl, Olek reveals it is from his brother who lives in America. He admits it is a long story. She tells him that he is so much different from the other men before they kiss. Ling apologizes only for Olek to kiss her. Daniel finds the shaft open in room 1011. He climbs through and sees the mental hospital on the other side. Maura tells Eyk that they’re in a mental hospital that her father built for her mother. She was the only one he could ever show affection to. With each birth, her mother became less and less of who she used to be.
She started to forget things before she eventually forgot their names. Then, she forgot them. Their father resented them for it and wanted her to get better. He built the hospital because he wanted to learn how the human brain works and how to repair its damage. They go into the room in front of them and look at the medical chair as Maura admits she can’t remember what happened there. When Eyk opens the window, he finds what appears to be the ship’s hull. Maura finds the same behind several wall panels. Sebastian tells Ramiro (Jose Pimentao) that it is pointless because they’re not going to reach anyone. Once he leaves, Ramiro tells Anker (Alexandre Willaume) that he is sorry for his loss. Anker reveals he never wanted to be a priest since he was a farmer like his father and his father before him. Although they didn’t have a lot of money, they were happy. Everything changed when Iben started hearing God’s voice. He told her that he had bigger plans for them so it gave Iben hope when everything seemed hopeless.
Anker wanted to feel the same hope and Iben to be happy, but he is a liar because he never heard God’s voice. He confesses that he doesn’t believe he exists. Ramiro grabs his hands before telling him that all his sins will be forgiven. Anker thanks him. Virginia and Iben are unable to find any survivors. Virginia gives her condolences to Iben who suggests their stories are already written. God writes their stories and you can’t do anything except accept that. Virginia notices a black substance coming out of the wall. When she tries to touch it, the material stabs her fingertip. The black substance begins spreading all over her finger and she can’t stop it from doing so. Tove sees something so she begins following it and calling out to see if it’ll respond. She believes it is Krester. She chases him and enters a door only to end up outside where she is no longer pregnant. Tove finds Krester and Villads (Martin Greis-Rosenthal) who is pointing a rifle at him. Villads tells her that he has been waiting for her. When he tries to shoot Krester, Tove knocks the gun away causing Krester to get hit in the face.
She is transported back to the ship just in time for Clemence to check on her. Iben arrives and takes her gun before they agree to check the lower deck. Sebastian climbs into the cupboard where the boy was locked up as it begins glowing after he shuts the door. Maura tells Eyk that this makes no sense because there used to be a door on the wall in front of them and it led to her father’s office. Eyk suggests it was like all of this was part of the ship. Maura tells him about the boy bringing her here and what he said about them listening. If she wanted answers, she’d have to ask the creator. She wonders if they’ve both gone mad before Eyk encourages her to keep searching. Tove finds Ada’s doll when she helps search the lower deck. Clemence has to check on her because she seems out of it. When Clemence leaves her to find the others, Tove hears something nearby that gets her attention. She believes she has found Krester, but it turns out to be Villads. She runs away from him and finds herself outside again. She walks back over to the hay pile before Villads asks where her sister is.
They say she is in school. Villads asks Krester if he believes telling the truth is a virtue. He believes telling a lie is a sin, but he won’t say whether they should be punished. Anker pleads with Villads and says they can come to an agreement. Villads believes Krester stole something from him and is lying about it now. He insists he cannot have people without value working on his land. He throws Tove to the ground before telling Krester that he took his son’s innocence and he will take something from them in return. After knocking out Tove, Villads climbs on top of her and begins raping her. She wakes up in the middle of it and smashes a rock into his head. He chokes her until she hits him with the rock again. She keeps hitting him until she grabs the gun and shoots him. Back on the ship, Clemence rushes over to her so she can comfort her. Lucien tells Jerome (Yann Gael) that he is sorry even though he may not believe him. Jerome believes he got what he wanted, but Lucien tells him he is wrong about that.
Instead, he got what he deserved since there is something going on in his head. Lucien might only have days left so he is going to America to see a doctor. The doctor has never done it on someone alive, but he is going to try to operate and get it out. Lucien says he got what he wanted because he wanted to see him dead. They manage to get the engines running again as the lights throughout the ship turn back on. Anker questions who is steering the ship since the man responsible is gone. They try to find out how to steer the ship only to find that the books contain the same words over and over. It says, “may your coffee kick in before reality does”. Sebastian approaches Henry Singleton (Anton Lesser) to tell him the situation got out of hand before he broke protocol. Henry learns it’ll be about 48 hours before the transfer. He wants Sebastian to find the boy and the pyramid because of how much depends on the success of this project. Henry believes people are oblivious to reality and only see what they want to see.
All they have to do is shift their perspective to see the full scope of things. Eyk and Maura finish searching the whole building until they find the black substance. As they try to approach it, Daniel rushes in to warn them not to get any closer to it. When Maura suggests he is working for her father, Daniel asks if she remembers who he is. Daniel argues that they don’t have much time because it is spreading. Eyk leads Daniel at gunpoint. Daniel stops and tells Maura that he isn’t going to let this happens because he won’t leave her again. He attacks Eyk and distracts him long enough to use the device to send him into the woods. Back inside, Daniel tries to explain everything to Maura who holds him at gunpoint. He reminds her that his name is Daniel and they got married 12 years ago. She refuses to believe it and forces him to drop the device. As she takes him into room 1011, Daniel tells her he loves her before pleading with her to wake up. After locking him in, Maura runs outside and begins telling herself that she isn’t crazy.
She yells for her father and throws the gun breaking glass nearby. Maura removes a panel and finds what looks like the ship’s hull. Henry watches her on one of the several television monitors in front of him. Clemence tells Virginia that they’re all dead and they’re on their own now. Once they see the lightning in the distance, Tove says this can’t be real. Eyk manages to make it back to the ship. It is ransacked and damaged so he might be on the Prometheus. He too says this cannot be real.
1899 Review
As 1899 has progressed, the series has made more effort to develop the relationships between the main characters and this has been successful for most characters. In fact, the relationships are by far the most successful aspects of 1899. Originality might be an issue for viewers who’ve watched a lot of television, but that shouldn’t be an issue for many. The relationships are well done and they’ve progressed nicely through six episodes.
The performances are still good even if there are names that many viewers may not be familiar with in the beginning. As far as the science-fiction aspect of the show goes, it is probably the least interesting element so far. In this episode in particular, a handful of scenes felt a little silly so the science-fiction mystery isn’t working as well as some of the other aspects of 1899.
The series likely could’ve been improved by removing the science-fiction angle and just focusing on the characters and their dynamic relationships. Fewer episodes would’ve been better as well because the show is stretched thin to get enough content for eight episodes. The episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of 1899 can be found on Reel Mockery here. Have you found our website beneficial? Consider supporting our work by following this link.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
Six episodes in.
I mean it’s all very HP Lovecraft, borrowing many elements from his stories. I don’t think of it as science fiction as much as I interpret it as cosmic horror. I get what they are trying to do amd am more or less on board with it.
That said this show progresses at a damn snail’s pace and its a real chore chewing through it. It’s like eating a 5 gallon bucket of oatmeal with the promise that there is something good at the bottom of the bucket.
Probably should have been six episodes instead of eight. I see all these relationships as filler. Get to the part where Chtulu eats the ship or something.
Yep. Totally agree with the pacing being a major issue. Netflix tends to be one of the worst for this since 8 episodes seems like a requirement. I get that they want to get their money’s worth but it is too much sometimes. A lot of their shows and others would be better shorter like the British normally does. Probably the biggest issue with 1899.