About 1899 Season 1 – TV Series

1899 Season 1

1899 is a multilingual German period mystery-science fiction television series created by Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar. It premiered on Netflix in November 2022 and received generally favourable reviews. The series was cancelled in January 2023.

1899 Season 1

STORY

Episodes 01

“The Ship”

On October 19, 1899, the steamship Kerberos is sailing from England to New York City. Four months earlier, its sister ship Prometheus disappeared without a trace on the same route. Maura and many of the first-class passengers on Kerberos are in the dining room when third-class passenger Krester bursts in pleading for a doctor. Krester is thrown out by Franz, but Maura follows Krester down into third-class, where she resolves Tove’s tangled umbilical cord. Lucien and Clémence struggle with intimacy. Maura has strange visions. She encounters the captain of the Kerberos, Eyk, who warns her to follow the ship’s rules.

After receiving a message of only a set of coordinates, presumably from the Prometheus, Eyk changes course of the Kerberos to those coordinates, to the chagrin of many passengers. Kerberos sights the Prometheus, which appears to be abandoned. Eyk boards Prometheus with Maura, Ramiro, Olek and Jérôme. Ángel takes an interest in Krester. A mysterious man boards Kerberos and moves into the room next to Maura’s. On Prometheus, Eyk finds a strange hairband, and discovers that the telegraph is destroyed. Maura follows a scarab beetle to a cabinet and opens it to find a boy, who hands her a black tetrahedron object.

Episodes 02

“The Boy”

Eyk receives a message from the shipping company reading only two words: “Sink ship”. Maura houses the boy, the only person discovered on Prometheus, in her room. She discovers a ring in his possession, and a symbol of an upside-down triangle with a horizontal line behind his left ear. The mysterious man introduces himself to Maura as Daniel. Ángel gives Krester a cigarette tin. Jérôme breaks into Lucien and Clémence’s room and leaves a Legion of Honour medal. Eyk has hallucinations of his wife and daughters, who died in a house fire some years ago; one of his daughters wears the same hairband found on Prometheus. He wakes up to find a shaft has appeared under the bed in his room.

Tove finds the cigarette tin and angrily returns it to Ángel; Ángel and Ramiro have an argument which leads to them having sex. Jérôme is discovered to be a stowaway and subdued. Maura shows the boy a letter bearing the same triangle symbol which led her to board the ship, but he remains mute. Eyk decides to tow Prometheus back to Europe, to the growing displeasure of many passengers and crew. Eyk shows Maura a similar letter that led him to Kerberos, and he believes answers lie with the Prometheus. Ada is found dead. Elsewhere, someone is monitoring the ship’s occupants on screens.

Episodes 03

“The Fog”

Ada’s cause of death is unable to be determined. After Kerberos runs into heavy fog, Eyk orders the ship to stop and wait until the fog clears. Eyk shows Maura the hairband and the shaft in his room. The two head back to Prometheus to find its logbook. First mate, Sebastian uncovers a panel and inputs a sequence made of triangles. While hiding from her mother after an argument about her training to be a geisha, Ling Yi has flashbacks of her friend’s accidental death which led to her boarding Kerberos. Olek finds Ling Yi and comforts her. Disobeying Eyk’s orders to keep Ada’s death secret, Franz lets Tove retrieve her body. Krester gives Ángel a handjob. Daniel enters Maura’s room and meets with the boy. On the Prometheus, Eyk and Maura find another shaft bearing the triangle symbol, which is also the ship company’s logo. More bodies are found on the Kerberos.

Eyk finds a document in Prometheus‘s furnaces which he hides from Maura. Ling Yi entertains Lucien, though he has a seizure after an interruption by Clémence earlier prevented him from taking medication. Furious with Eyk’s decision to return to Europe and hide Ada’s death, Franz arms the third-class passengers and urges them to launch a mutiny. Olek attempts to warn Eyk but is beaten and locked up with Jérôme. Ramiro warns Eyk, but both are arrested by mutineers led by Tove. Daniel uses a device resembling a sliding puzzle to teleport the Kerberos.

Episodes 04

“The Fight”

The mutineers sail the Kerberos westward. Franz forces Jérôme and Olek to throw the bodies overboard. Sebastian convinces Iben the boy is to blame for the deaths, and she takes command of the mutineers and orders a search. Lucien finds the medal and attacks Clémence, only to apologize and leave. Eyk and Ramiro escape captivity. Iben leads a search of Maura’s room, but the boy has disappeared. Maura discovers a shaft appearing under her bed with the boy hiding in it. The boy uses a beetle to lead Maura to a safe path across the ship. Olek stages a distraction, allowing Jérôme to escape. Krester spits in Ángel’s face in front of Iben, but she tells him she wishes God had taken him rather than Ada. Jérôme encounters Clémence and the two find Eyk and Ramiro, later joined by Maura and the boy. The six attempt to launch a lifeboat, but are found by the mutineers.

The boy surrenders himself, but Jérôme tries to intervene and is shot. Jérôme has flashbacks of his time in the French Foreign Legion alongside Lucien. When Lucien’s suggestion to desert was rejected by Jérôme, he locks Jérôme in a cell, steals the uniform of a dead officer, and leaves the medal with Jérôme. Back on Kerberos, Eyk and Jérôme rally loyalists opposed to the mutineers. The two sides clash, but Iben throws the boy overboard before Maura can reach him. Eyk sounds a retreat. He confronts Maura with the document, which lists her as a passenger on the Prometheus. The boy reappears on the Kerberos to shocked loyalists.

Episodes 05

“The Calling”

Disgusted by Iben and Krester’s actions, Tove defects to the loyalists. Frightened of the boy, the loyalists lock him in a cabinet. Maura is shot at while trying to free him, but time suddenly freezes, and the boy leads her away. When time resumes, a mysterious ticking noise causes most of the ship’s passengers, including Yuk Je and Krester, to enter a marching trance and throw themselves overboard. The boy writes Maura a cryptic note that “they” are listening, and whispers to her that if she wants answers, she needs to “ask the Creator”. Using a beetle to reveal a passage in the shaft, the boy takes Maura to an abandoned mental asylum. Daniel follows and promises the boy “he” wouldn’t find him.

The Kerberos receives a second “sink ship” message. Exploring the asylum, Maura encounters Henry. She asks him about her long-lost brother, Ciaran, but is injected with a black substance and wakes up again on the Kerberos. Maura tells Eyk that her father is the owner of the ship company. She uses the beetle to open a passage in the shaft in Eyk’s room, which lead them to Eyk’s burned house. Daniel disables the ticking, and the survivors regroup.

Episodes 06

“The Pyramid”

The survivors head to different tasks: Maura and Eyk look for the boy; Ramiro and Anker stay in the bridge with Sebastian; Ángel, Jérôme, Lucien, Olek, Ling Yi, and Franz head to the engine room to restart the engine; and Virginia, Clémence, Tove and Iben search for survivors. A black metallic substance begins to appear and grow in the ship. Tove experiences hallucinations of Krester and Ada, and has flashbacks of her rape by a feudal lord due to Krester’s relationship with the lord’s son, and her killing the lord. Olek and Ling Yi share their first kiss.

Maura and Eyk return to the asylum; they find the walls appear to be the ship’s hull. Virginia touches the substance and it spreads through her hand. Sebastian teleports off the ship and meets with Henry, who tells him to find the boy. The engine is restarted. Daniel follows Maura and Eyk; Eyk and Daniel fight, and Daniel teleports him away with the device. Daniel tells Maura they were married 12 years ago and that nothing in their world is real; Maura locks him in a room and takes the device. Eyk wakes to find himself on the Prometheus, surrounded by a sea of similarly abandoned ships.

Episodes 07

“The Storm”

The Kerberos sails into a storm. The survivors in the bridge head to the engine room for help. Halfway, Iben refuses to follow the rest of the survivors, and Anker stays with her. Olek and Ling Yi head to the bridge to steer the ship. Franz and Tove move to seal the bulkheads. Daniel breaks down a wall and climbs through a series of portals in different landscapes. Maura climbs through the shaft in Daniel’s room and finds herself in an abandoned house; she sees flashbacks of her with Daniel and finds photographs of the two of them with the boy.

Daniel finds the boy and pledges to restore Maura’s memory so she can “end this loop once and for all”; the boy gives him a wedding ring. Daniel finds Maura and tells her that the boy is their son, named Elliot. He also tells her that they are in a simulation, and that she needs to find the override. Maura takes out a key from her locket. Lucien collapses from a seizure; Clémence and Jérôme try to get him to his medicine, but Lucien dies before it can be administered. Ling Yi sees a vision of Yuk Je and runs out; Olek saves her, but is swept overboard by a wave. Ángel is hit by falling debris and dies in Ramiro’s arms. Franz sacrifices himself to save Tove. Iben and Anker drown together. Sebastian brings Elliot to Henry, and Henry demands the key from Maura over an intercom in exchange for her son. The simulation ends and the Kerberos is transported to the sea of ships, where the passengers find Eyk.

Episodes 08

“The Key”

Maura, Eyk, Jérôme, Clémence, Ramiro, Tove, Ling Yi and Virginia realize they all received a letter which led to them boarding the Kerberos. Maura tells them they are in a simulation orchestrated by her father, but all except Eyk distrust her and leave. Maura takes Eyk through the shaft in Daniel’s room to his memories of their family. Maura and Eyk break down a wall and enter a series of portals. Henry injects Elliot with a white substance, unlocking a memory in which Maura injects Elliot with a black substance despite Daniel telling her to “let him go”. Daniel hacks into the simulation, changing the code and causing many disruptions. The rest of the survivors escape from the rapidly expanding black substance in the ship, teleporting into each other’s backgrounds before ending up back on the ship.

Maura and Eyk run into Sebastian at the asylum. Sebastian uses a device to incapacitate Eyk, then take Maura to Henry and hands him the key. Henry tells Maura she is the Creator. Henry uses the key with the tetrahedron, but Daniel has made them useless. The simulation ends. Maura is reunited with Daniel, who tells her that Ciaran took over the program. Daniel gives her the means to leave, telling her he will “always be there”. Maura wakes up alone in a starship called Prometheus, surrounded by many others that were on the Kerberos, placed under suspended animation. On a computer terminal, she sees the date is October 19, 2099, and receives a message from Ciaran welcoming her to reality.

CAST

Emily Beecham as Maura Henriette Franklin/Singleton, a neurologist and one of the first female doctors in Britain, travelling alone to America
Aneurin Barnard as Daniel Solace, a mysterious man who boards the Kerberos.
Andreas Pietschmann as Eyk Larsen, the ship’s weather-beaten captain
Miguel Bernardeau as Ángel, a wealthy Spaniard traveling with Ramiro
José Pimentão as Ramiro, a faux Portuguese priest traveling with Ángel
Isabella Wei as Ling Yi, a mysterious young woman from Hong Kong, traveling with Yuk Je
Gabby Wong as Yuk Je, a middle-aged woman from Hong Kong traveling with Ling Yi
Yann Gael [fr] as Jérôme, a French stowaway
Mathilde Ollivier as Clémence, a young woman from the Paris elite, accompanied by her new husband Lucien
Jonas Bloquet as Lucien, an upper class Parisian, and former Lieutenant of the French Foreign Legion, newly married to his wife Clémence
Rosalie Craig as Virginia Wilson, a sociable, wealthy British woman
Maciej Musiał as Olek, a Polish stoker on his way to New York
Clara Rosager as Tove, a young pregnant Danish woman traveling to New York City with her family
Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen as Krester, a young Danish man with a mysterious scar on his face
Maria Erwolter as Iben, a religious Dane traveling with her husband Anker and children, who supposedly hears the voice of God
Alexandre Willaume as Anker, a religious Dane going to New York with his wife Iben, his son Krester, and his daughters Tove and Ada
Tino Mewes as Sebastian, the first mate on the Kerberos
Isaak Dentler as Franz, the captain’s right-hand man
Fflyn Edwards as Elliot, a.k.a. “the boy”, a mysterious mute boy found under unusual circumstances, who becomes Maura’s charge on board the Kerberos.
Anton Lesser as Henry Singleton, a British investor and Maura’s father
Vida Sjørslev as Ada, Krester and Tove’s younger sister
Alexander Owen as Landon, a stoker and friend of Darrel
Ben Ashenden as Darrel, a stoker and friend of Landon
Richard Hope as Dr. Reginald Murray, a boorish British doctor
Joshua Jaco Seelenbinder as Eugen, an officer on the Kerberos
Niklas Maienschein as Wilhelm, the telegraph operator on the Kerberos
Jónas Alfreð Birkisson as Einar, a third class passenger from Norway and mutineer
Heidi Toini as Bente, a third class passenger
Cloé Heinrich as Nina Larsen, Eyk’s daughter
Alexandra Gottschlich as Sara Larsen, Eyk’s wife
Kaja Chan as Mei Mei, Ling Yi’s friend in Hong Kong
Martin Greis as Villads, the landowner that employed Anker’s family