S01.E06: The Pyramid

[AnimeMania]

Tove has scary flashbacks and wants to kill the boy. Daniel follows Maura and the captain into a strange place. Maura’s father appears with a message.

Premiere Date: November 17, 2022 

[krankydoodle]

Poor Tove! It was unforgivable of Krester to say something in an earlier episode about her killing someone as if she had done something wrong.

There were some unsettling moments in this episode, like Tove just staring at Clémence after she put on pants and I thought Iben was going to stab Mrs. Wilson at one point. The scene with Ramiro comforting Anker despite not knowing what he was saying was very sweet, though.

Oh, dang! I wasn't expecting Daniel to turn out to be Maura's husband. And just when she and Eyk were getting closer.

[ferjy]

On 11/20/2022 at 10:21 PM, krankydoodle said:

And just when she and Eyk were getting closer.

Proverbial love triangle ensues. Speaking of Eyk, I just spent 6 episodes thinking it’s Toby Stephens playing Eyk. Wow, this guy is Toby Stephen’s doppelgänger! I couldn’t figure out why they chose Toby instead of a German actor, and lo and behold it’s Andreas Pietschmann, not Toby Stephens. I recognize him now from Dark. I probably thought it was Toby Stephens in that too! 😄

[iMonrey]

This is when I started to get annoyed with the show. We're six episodes in and I still have no clue what's going on. That's very frustrating. With Dark, even though there were things I didn't understand, I was able to follow the story. 

[silverstream]

So the fact that Virginia touched the black crystal/coal thing is going to cause major problems, yes? I hope she doesn't infect any other characters with it, but I'm not particularly optimistic...

I'm still half convinced the boy is Maura's and Daniel's son, and if they've been married for 12 years, he should just about fit in age.

Lucien's mysterious illness has been brought up often enough by now that I'm starting to think it's going to be relevant to whatever's behind what's going on, or at least explained by it, in a "malfunctioning pod" kind of way.

[peachmangosteen]

2 hours ago, silverstream said:

I'm still half convinced the boy is Maura's and Daniel's son, and if they've been married for 12 years, he should just about fit in age.

OH! I thought Daniel said they got married 2 years ago lol. 

[Kirsty]

Around episode three was when I stopped expecting things to make sense and started enjoying the ride.

The physical alteration of the ship in this one gave me the heebie jeebies. It was extremely nightmarish. It reminded me of nightmares I've had when I've been ill.

Anyway this was a bit like a bottle episode. Classic blackout episode. Wasn't there a Friends episode with a blackout in NYC? Everyone splits up into smaller groups, preferably with characters they don't usually interact with, and shares a moment. I agree with the poster above who said the fake priest comforting the real priest was touching.

So, up to now, I would have said that the Captain and Daniel both have an attachment to Maura. The Captain has sexual chemistry with her, and he and Maura seem to be in a similar predicament. She's closer to him than she is to Daniel. Daniel is like her hot guardian angel but she doesn't know him or trust him. And I would have said that her relationship with Daniel is platonic; I thought maybe he was her brother.

But if what Daniel says is true, then I wonder if Maura suffers from the same condition that her mother had ie. She began to forget everything and everyone. Or maybe Maura is perfectly healthy, and her father gives her a drug to make her forget, so that he can test different cures out on her? Maybe she even volunteered to be a test subject,  if she's a doctor too.

Jesus, Tove's most traumatic moment was absolutely horrific. You'd wonder why one of her family didn't pick up the gun and shoot the fucker while he was raping her.

On 11/23/2022 at 8:30 PM, silverstream said:

So the fact that Virginia touched the black crystal/coal thing is going to cause major problems, yes? I hope she doesn't infect any other characters with it, but I'm not particularly optimistic...

Yeah, it's difficult to just accept that she's fine now. All gone, nothing to see here... I wouldn't bet on it!

Edited November 26, 2022 by Kirsty

[silverstream]

42 minutes ago, Kirsty said:

Jesus, Tove's most traumatic moment was absolutely horrific. You'd wonder why one of her family didn't pick up the gun and shoot the fucker while he was raping her.
 

I'd have to check, but I think they were tied to that hay wagon.

[JustHereForFood]

If they are not really on the ship or in the country but in some closed space, there must be some technology to mimic the wind, etc. Plus with all the flashlights and Maura's father (?) being in a modern looking room, it's probably all in the present. But why are they all in period clothes, is that part of the experiment too?

All those ships at the end looked scary. Are all of them failed experiments?

I am now also thinking that the boy is Maura's son. 

[chaifan]

On 11/22/2022 at 11:05 AM, iMonrey said:

This is when I started to get annoyed with the show. We're six episodes in and I still have no clue what's going on. That's very frustrating.

Yep.  The problem I'm having at this point is that (for me, YMMV) there are only two possible explanations for what's going on...  a) it's all in someone's head, maybe Maura, maybe someone else.  So we may get to the last 2 minutes of Episode 8 only to have Bobby wake up in the shower.  Or, b) there's a supernatural element at play, truly transporting these people back and forth in time and space, and somehow Maura's dad is part of the supernatural.

And my problem is, either of these explanations means that from this point, anything can happen, none of it has to make any sense.  The writers could literally be throwing darts at a board of possible weird shit to happen next, and no matter what choice comes up they're able to explain it away as either a dream/hallucination or supernatural whatever. 

For me, that's not very satisfying.  I'm ok with supernatural shows, but you've got to establish somewhat early on we're dealing with supernatural, what the "rules" are in this supernatural world, who's in charge, why some people know about the supernatural and others don't, etc. 

Also, I mentioned in an earlier thread that I wonder if the title of the show "1899" has significance.  It seems to be a rather random year.  If it is someone's dream/hallucination, then I think that person is really in a more modern time.  Maybe the 60's/70's, given the retro tv screens, equipment with lots of red/green buttons, and the music from that time.  (Although there was one song by Echo & The Bunnymen, which is 80's.)  If it's supernatural, then maybe it really is in 1899.  Speaking of numbers, does 1011 have significance?  It's Maura's room, but they seem to focus on the room number a lot. 

I'm slow binging, will be done with this in a day or two, so I guess I'll get my answers soon.  Or just have more questions.  Yeah, probably more questions... 

[Haleth]

It is my theory that the people whom we've seen relive backstories are patients at the hospital, all participating in a shared illusion/hallucination.  Everyone who jumped is not real.  (I'm not sure about Krester though, he seemed real enough.)  For whatever reason they are being experimented on in this AI world, to escape reality?  As mad scientist dad wanted his wife to escape the sickness in her mind so she could live a productive life in a different reality?  (This sort of reminds me of The Peripheral.  The characters' minds travel to another place and time and everything seems real to their senses, but their bodies remain in their own time and place.  I'm wondering if we'll get a shot of all these people unconscious on gurneys with devices of some kind on their heads.)  That last shot of multiple wrecked ships makes us wonder just how many times did this story play out?  This has all happened before and it will all happen again (to quote another weird, supernatural show).

[wanderingstar]

Great team-ups in this episode!

My favorite might be Tove and Clémence. So ironic that Clémence views Tove as someone who’s strong and free. Given what we saw of Tove’s flashback, I’m not sure that’s true – at least not the free part. That flashback was so hard to watch. I’m not sure we needed to see Tove being raped to drive home what happened to her.

Ramiro’s scene with Anker was beautiful – despite neither man understanding the other! Anker, an actual priest, confesses his sins to Ramiro, who’s not a priest-lol I do love that the characters have found ways to convey what they mean, in spite of the language barrier.

Of course, I loved all things Maura and Eyk – especially their little almost kiss. Damn show, I haven’t seen this many longing looks and touches since season 2 of Bridgerton!

Ángel had my favorite line of the episode: “I don’t like this one bit.” Ha! That could be the tagline of this show.

I find it fascinating that Lucien thinks his seizures are punishment for his betrayal of Jérôme.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Gillian Rosh

[Dobian]

On 11/22/2022 at 8:05 AM, iMonrey said:

This is when I started to get annoyed with the show. We're six episodes in and I still have no clue what's going on. That's very frustrating. With Dark, even though there were things I didn't understand, I was able to follow the story. 

I was going to say the same thing.  You may not have known the whole reveal in Dark before the final episode, but you could figure things out as you went along with the time travel and everything.  They revealed things a little at a time.  But this show is like Lost, just mystery piled on top of mystery.